


Fait Accompli

by Worldclassbeauty



Category: Lovecraft Country (TV)
Genre: BAMF Women, Bisexual Female Character, F/F, Female Character of Color, Genderqueer Character, Interracial Relationship, Lesbian Character, Magic, Period-Typical Racism, Period-Typical Sexism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:34:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27378817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Worldclassbeauty/pseuds/Worldclassbeauty
Summary: sometime love is meant to be, no matter the circumstances.
Relationships: Ruby Baptiste/Christina Braithwhite
Comments: 70
Kudos: 181





	1. Chapter 1

She is silent, her voice is gone. She is begging, crying for her mom to not leave them again. But no sound is heard.

She is awoken by a warm and gentle hand on her cheek and opens her eyes in the moonlit bedroom to find piercing blue eyes looking concerned back at her.

“you were screaming” clarified Christina as Ruby looked confused.

“I’m sorry” Ruby apologized, but Christina shook her head.

“Never apologize for anything”

Ruby rolled onto her back and took deep breaths. Christina gently, almost timidly, positioned against her with her head on Ruby chest, listing to the rapid heartbeat.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Christina asks.

Ruby shakes her head and tells her that it is in the past. But she does tighten her grip on Christina and falls into a restless sleep.

She awoke to an empty bed and a note on he-the bedside table.

_Darling,_

_I had to leave early for a meeting,_

_I will be home sometime during the afternoon._

_Rest today, you need it._

_Christina._

At her signature there was a dark glossy kiss mark and the note smelled like Christina, gardenia, vanilla, and magic.

Ruby had asked Christina once what perfume she wore, because her sent was driving Ruby mad, and Christina had pulled out a small vile from her purse and given it to Ruby. It was homemade and that alone almost made Ruby roll her eyes because of course it was. But Ruby kept the vile it was in her purse and sometimes, when she was alone and relaxed, she would dap some on a scarf or handkerchief and breath in the sent of her lover. Christina never mentioned the perfume again and Ruby was grateful.

Ruby got out of bed and put on a pretty but simple dress Christina had costume ordered for her. She went over to the vanity where she had a jewelry box, Christina kept giving her expensive gifts and she had only mentioned _once_ that she had nowhere to put them, the very next day a red velvet jewelry box with her name on a card on top of it had appeared next to Christina’s on the vanity.

She didn’t know what possessed her to do it, but she found herself opening Christina’s jewelry box. It didn’t have much, Christina only had a few pieces, but they cost a fortune. But one item caught her eye, a ring with a letter rolled up inside it. The ring was old, the gold was thick and ornamented with a simple blue gem in the middle. Ruby cursed herself as she unrolled the letter. It was dated more than 20 years ago.

_“My love, my life_

_If this letter and the ring finds you, I am dead my child._

_I failed in protecting you from the monster I married, forgive me and forgive my weakness._

_I knew from the moment I married him that he would be my death,_

_just as I knew you would be my life._

_As I am writing this you are sleeping in my bed,_

_you’ve just had your 5 th birthday and now you are tucked in safe and sound clutching your newest book._

_I don’t know if your father ever told you, but he married me for my bloodline,_

_which I can proudly say traces all the way back to Cassandra of Troy, the seer cursed by Apollo._

_The curse has long since faded but not the powers. The ring will be your tether should you need it, Cassandra herself imbued it with power._

_Should you not inherit the gift I will leave you with this prophecy, I saw it the day you were born._

_In your life I see a woman, a proud woman, with rich skin whose blood is from the cradle of humanity._

_I see a gem, a rub-“_

_Ruby’s heart was rai_ sing as she folded and rolled the letter back up, to sacred of what might be reviled to keep reading.

The doorbell rang as Ruby was putting everything back exactly as it was. She quickly left the room and went down the stairs to get the door. Before she could even open it, she recognized the shape on the other side. She _really_ didn’t want this today. 

“Hey Leti” she said as she opened the door. She didn’t move from the doorway. Christina wouldn’t want her sister in the house, and she was certain the house was warded against both Leti and Tic.

“is the White Devil out?” Leti asked

“Bye Leti” Ruby said as she made to close the door.

“I’m sorry, I –“Leti said as she grabbed the door from the outside, keeping it open.

Then Ruby looked at her sister, she looked tired and sad. The big sister part of her brain took over then.

“you can’t come in but let me fix something to drink and we will sit in the garden” Ruby said after a deep breath.

Ruby got some lemonade from the kitchen and met Leti on the bench in the garden. It was the front garden, but Christina kept the hedges high so the neighbors can’t look in.

They talked for hours, about Leti being pregnant, unmarried, about Tic’ ex-girlfriend from Korea showing up and just about life. Then Leti realized that she hadn’t asked her sister a single thing about Christina.

“So tell me, what is Christina like behind closed doors?” Leti asked pouring herself another glass of lemonade, it was heavenly.

Ruby got this lost look in her eyes for a few seconds before responding.

“she is like fire and honey, she is wide awake, alert and cold, not uncomfortably cold but like a cold drink on a hot day. She is totally focused yet almost entirely inaccessible, _almost_. When we are alone, she is so focused on me, so kind and docile. Like a content lioness.” Ruby tried explaining.

Leti looked confused but nodded all the same, her sister was completely smitten.

“And the sex? Are you sleeping with her as William or both?” Leti pushed, it was her prerogative as her sister.

Ruby looked away, if she were white, she would have blushed pink, but thankfully her melanin skin hid the blush well.

“Oh my god, now you have to tell me!” Leti squealed

“what goes on in our bedroom is private, but what I will say is that being a woman gives her a much better understanding of the female body than any man would have.”

“While I am very happy that our time together is pleasing you perhaps that is not a topic for the _front_ _garden_ my darling” William said as he approached the two women.

Trailing a bit behind him were two white men were carrying a large, heavy looking crate.

“fellas if you just place that in the foyer, thank you” William said over his shoulder as he went to kiss Ruby, it was just a peck but he could feel the onlookers eyes on them. Let the stare till they went blind.

“Leti” William said in greeting as he nodded at her.

“William” she returned with a nod.

Before anyone could say anything, a voice interrupted.

“Sir, we are all done” one of the workers said nervously the other had left silently.

William nodded.

“Right, how much?” William asked.

“6 dollars sir, but can I just say I admire what you are doing. My wife is black and expecting. We had to move from Georgia, but I wouldn’t change it for the world” the young man said.

Ruby and Leti aww’ed while William just nodded.

He gave the man 6 dollars, and slid a tip into his other hand as he shook it.

“these relationships are easier with money kid, but for now buy your wife something nice” he said.

The man nodded and politely left. They heard an exclamation of “ _Oh lord_ ” from behind the hedge a few second later.

“How much did you tip him?” Ruby asked as she walked over and wrapped herself in his arms.

Leti was surprised to see this level of comfort and affection from her usually distant and a bit cold sister.

“10 dollars, its not a whole lot to us but his wife may enjoy a bit of luxury” William said

“You big softy” Ruby said and pulled his face down for a kiss.

They ended up getting a bit lost in each other and didn’t notice that Leti was still there.

“So, what is in the box?” Ruby asked as they broke apart for air.

“A very beautiful redhead I think will suit you” William said with Christina’s hedonistic smile.


	2. The Language of Flowers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elizabeth in this story is based on Christina Hendricks.

“Wait _what_?” Leti asked the couple, the couple?

William didn’t answer but he made an intricate motion with his hand and motioned for Leti to come inside.

Ruby had been right she thought, Leti had been unable to enter the house.

Once they were away from any eyes and ears with the door closed and locked William ran two fingers over the length of the crate and spoke something in a foreign tongue, he then lifted the top off of the crate.

The two sisters bend over the top to find a striking redhead seemingly asleep inside.

She looked around their age, maybe a bit older. She was pale white, the kind of white you’d expect to find in England or Scotland and she tall even in the crate, around 5’8 or 5’9. She was around the same size and build as Ruby and very well endowed in the chest area.

“Oh, I thought you would pick someone thi-“before Leti could finish William interrupted.

“Thinner? Ruby can have anything she wants, anything at all, but size never seemed to be an issue. She wanted to be white and redhead so that’s what I got her.” He said.

Ruby who had been quietly observing felt her heart grow.

“You did get what you want in the process, I can’t help but notice that she is rather top heavy” Ruby said addressing only William.

William is a smooth, confident, man. He is everything Christina is socially banned from showing. So when Ruby confronts him like that he responds with a debonair attitude.

William moved intimately close to Ruby and glanced down at her chest before looking her straight in the eyes as he ran a finger down her cheek.

“You are the most beautiful woman since Eve, the vessel I found is a poor substitute. So forgive me for trying to preserve just a bit of the beauty I see in you”

And honestly that made even Leti feel a bit warm inside.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend” Leti said a bit ashamed, as she should be. 

“So who was she” Ruby asked when she came back to her senses.

“Her name was Elizabeth Stevens, her parents immigrated from Scotland to Texas, unmarried with no living family on this side of the Atlantic to claim her.” William explained.

“And now she’s here” Ruby said.

“Yes, but we do need to get her in the basement before she decomposes so help me lift” William said, absolutely ruining the moment.

Leti offered to help but William kindly refused, he didn’t want her seeing the lab. So Ruby and William got the body down there by themselves while Leti got something to drink from the kitchen.

The house was massive, and more kept than hers. She wondered if Christina had a maid.

She got herself a glass of water, it was a warm day despite being late September, and the baby was messing up her body chemistry.

On the kitchen counter there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers, red and purple roses, yellow daffodils, light pink lilies, blue salvia, and eucalyptus. The flowers look to be 2 or 3 days old, a note laid on the counter in front of the vase, it was opened.

Leti could help herself.

_“Darling, there is something magic about you._

_My Gods look like you, it may be blasphemy._

_But I would slither from Eden to worship you”_

_\- C_

Leti had to catch her breath, that was an admission of love only missing the words themselves. It looked to be so freely given, so easily penned on the paper. Christina may truly love her sister, but would it be enough? There was the fact that they were both women, well sometimes. They were interracial, also just sometimes… never mind that. They had gotten lucky that Christina hadn’t been able to complete the spell before the autumn equinox this time, but there would be one next year as well and being pregnant meant that Atticus’ bloodline continued, Christina would have to kill her baby to gain immortality.

In the basement Ruby and William were almost finished setting up the bed and the spells for Elizabeth.

“Thank you for this” Ruby said as she connected the last iv.

“Anything for you” William smiled.

“when will the transformation be over” Ruby asked

“Well it took a bit longer to get here and I didn’t count on your sister being here, but we should have a little time” He said with a lustful look in his eyes.

Ruby smiled.

“I want you”

William closed the distance between them to kiss her, but she pulled away.

“No I want _you_ , Christina, the _real_ you”

Ruby had found out that there was one thing that could make her blond lover blush it was saying that she wanted her, not William.

“I want to kiss your soft lips, and feel your nipples harden under my touch. I want to feel you dripping for me and I want to see you riding my hand” Ruby leaned up to speak softly against his ear, due to their closeness she could feel him growing hard at her words. 

Ruby pulled away

“You better get rid of that before we join my sister” she said coyly

“I could freeze time. She would never know” William offered.

Ruby huffed a laugh and smiled.

“Some other time” 

Ruby left William in the basement to deal with the problem she had created.

And went into the kitchen to find Leti with a small letter in her hands. They really had a problem with reading things that wasn’t meant for them.

“Did you read anything interesting?” Ruby asked.

“She loves you” it wasn’t a question.

Ruby shrugged

“I don’t owe you an explanation”

“No but this right here, this is love” Leti said waving the note.

“That right there, that is Tuesday. Christina is the best thing that ever happened to me, she is so affectionate and attentive, and I feel like the center of the world when I’m with her. The best decision I’ve ever made was going with William home that night” Ruby said, even though she didn’t feel the need to defend herself.

Leti smiled, the sort of smile a parent smiles on their child’s wedding day, both happy and a bit sad.

“That feeling right there, _that_ is what love is. You love her…him…them?”

Ruby said nothing.

“If you had to choose right now, between me or her what would you choose?” Leti asked.

“Leti”

“I’m not making you actually choose silly, just answer me”

Ruby thought for a second, not just about blood and family but about Leti and Atticus starting their own family, about Christina’s father killing her mother, William being murdered and her father dying. Christina had no one and she was sure that no one but her mother had ever _really_ chosen her.

“I love you leti, you are my baby sister. But I’d chose her”

Leti nodded in defeat.

“You love her”

“Yeah, I think I do”

They stood for a second before hearing the stairs creak as Christina came up from the basement.

She was in a robe and though she had cleaned herself up her blond hair was still a bit red from the blood and Ruby could see a bit of flesh stuck on the tip of her ear. God, she loved that woman.

She didn’t care that Leti was watching as she made her way over to the still taller than her blonde. She stood on the tips of her toes to pull her in for a kiss which her Witch hungrily reciprocated.

“I _missed_ you” She breathe as they pulled apart.

“This is getting too sinful for my delicate soul. I think I will go home and see if my boyfriend’s ex- girlfriend is still staying at my house” Leti said.

“I’ve thought about that and if you aren’t shy then why don’t you just seduce the ex-girlfriend” Christina asked.

Ruby laughed at her sister’s expression.

“What?”

“Don’t let a man chose between two great women, seduce her and make them compete for you, it’s the ultimate power move” Christina explained.

Leti laughed.

“I might take you up on that” She said, she chuckled all the way out.

Drowning out the soft moans coming from the house she left.


	3. A day in the live

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Market and more

It had been a few days since they had gotten the new body for Ruby and today was the day, she would take it for a test drive. Christina had gotten all the measurements from the body and had paid a seamstress handsomely to make it in a day and to find shoes, a purse, and a hat to go with the outfit. It had arrived this morning, so today it was.

Ruby was nervous for some reason, this was the first time she was going to go out look like she had wanted, was it going to change her? What if it didn’t feel as good as she’d imagined?

She shook the thought off of her and zipped up the dress, it was a royal blue figure hugging dress with a belt in the same color to accentuate the waist, the neckline was modest but due to the size of her bust the dress still looked almost sinful. She loved it.

Christina had done up her now red hair, and God how Ruby had loved the feeling. It had been almost right after the transformation. Christina had embraced her and Ruby hadn’t realized that she had tears running down her cheek before she felt Christina gently wipe them away. She had kissed her forehead and stroked her hair as she held her close. After what was both an eternity and way too short Christina asked her if she could do her hair and makeup, Ruby had allowed it, just like she had ordered the dress, because Christina always looked flawless.

So Ruby had sat at their vanity while Christina powered and drew on her face. She had leaned into the touch and moaned as her hair was done. Her mother used to do her hair, then Hannah at the salon. But it had never felt like this before, she wasn’t sure if it was because she was white at the moment or if it was simply Christina’s touch.

“I look beautiful” Ruby had said as she looked in the mirror.

“You always look beautiful Ruby. I hope you know that the color of your skin has nothing to do with your beauty” Christina said seriously as she looked at her lover’s reflection in the mirror.

When Ruby didn’t reply she continued.

“Ruby I mean it. I know you think that it is easy for me to say as a white woman and maybe you are right, but I _lov_ -. Your body, your soul, feels like home to me. It feels like a million firsts.” Christina couldn’t stop the words spilling of her even if she wanted to. “Your skin is not ‘just’ black, it’s a deep rich black that even DaVinci wouldn’t be able to replicate, your eyes hold so much wonderment, mischief, and pain. When the light hits them just right, they shine this golden umber, I could get lost in them.”

She moved Ruby’s chair, so they were facing each other, then dropped to her knees in front of her.

“Your legs are just about my favorite thing in the world, long and strong, like one of Marston’s Amazonians” She said as she kissed the bare white legs of the vessel currently hosting her lover.

“I wish you saw yourself as I see you” Christina had said as she stood back up again.

Before leaving the room to let Ruby finish getting dressed, she had asked her if she wanted her or William today. Ruby had thought for a second before telling her that she wanted Christina today.

Her reasoning was that this was just a test trip during the day and that it would be perfectly normal and innocent for two friends to be seen together.

Christina had nodded without looking at her and left.

So now Ruby was standing alone and dressed in their bedroom, her purse and hat on their bed. 

Christina had been so open and honest with her, so passionate that it almost made her believe that she was beautiful. But she knew the world, even if she was the world’s most beautiful woman in Christina’s eyes, to everyone else she was just a big black woman, who might be pretty… for a black woman. But no this was her day, to really enjoy being white and Christina didn’t get to make her question that.

She met her downstairs in the foyer, and she was a vision as always. It wasn’t often they were out together with Christina in her own skin, William was a sort of safety blanket she wore in public. But Ruby was looking forward to it, she knew they couldn’t be as affectionate as she wanted, but she loved how people reacted to Christina. Ruby wasn’t sure Christina noticed it. It was different than the attention William got. But it was there the way people would turn to follow her with their eyes, this tall goddess walking among men.

She was in a fitted grey and blue dress. It was a bit longer than knee length but also showed a bit more clavicle than Ruby’s.

“Are you ready?” Christina asked as she held out Ruby’s coat to help her put it on. Ruby nodded wordlessly and put it on.

“Have you ever walked to the farmers market?” Ruby asked as Christina got her car keys

“No, I haven’t been to the market and I haven’t walked, why are you asking?” she asked curiously

Ruby smiled and placed a soft kiss on her Witch’s lips.

“Then that’ll be two new things, two firsts” She smiled, she had always wanted to go to the market on the north side and because this transformation happened during the day on a Wednesday she could.

“But it will be cold” Christina argued.

“So? We will take a warm bath when we come home and I’ll cook you something nice with what we buy” Ruby pressed, knowing full well that Christina couldn’t deny her anything.

Unbeknown to Ruby the only thing currently registering in Christina’s head was the fact that Ruby had referred to the house as _their home_. Ruby was cooking them a homecooked meal, in their home. It almost took Christina’s breath away. They needed to leave right now, before she dropped to her knees to ravish her lover.

“Okay then” she said with a soft smile.

The walk there was a bit longer than Ruby had thought, and she was a bit miffed that they couldn’t hold hands as they walked. But they walked so close that their hands kept brushing and it was almost enough.

The market was booming with seasonal products, it was like culinary heaven. Ruby loved cooking. It had started as a necessity, with their mother being out so much, but she really relaxed when she cooked. It was her safe space.

She hadn’t noticed that Christina had gone to buy a basked as they had forgotten to bring one. She come back with roasted chestnuts as well.

“Have you ever had these?” The lovely blond asked holding out a chestnut.

Ruby shook her head. It was not really a thing on the south side.

Christina bit half of the chestnut and placed the other half against Ruby’s lightly painted lips, which parted at the light pressure. Allowing Christina to place the chestnut gently in Ruby’s mouth. Christina kept a teasing eye contact as she did so. Ruby cursed the fact that they were in public because she would love nothing more the to kiss her and test if her Witch tasted like chestnuts as well.

Ruby is having a great time at the market, Christina can tell. She is so animated, talking to the vendors about the produce, greeting people walking by her not getting any judgmental stares. Christina wasn’t lying when she said that she preferred the real Ruby, but she also loved seeing her this carefree.

They decided to grab some lunch in the city and got a cab. The cab driver couldn’t stop staring at the two women as they got into the car.

The driver talked and talked the whole way, he talked so much that he didn’t notice Ruby’s hand slightly bunching up Christina’s skirt and tracing patterns on her stocking covered thigh.

The café they found wasn’t busy and they got a booth a bit away from everyone.

Ruby got a coffee and chocolate cake while Christina got a cup of tea and apple pie. Which should be completely innocent, except when Christina took the first bite of her pie she moaned. A full moan, no one around them reacted but Ruby nearly choked on her coffee.

“What are you doing?” She asked in a hushed voice 

“This pie is amazing. You have to try it” She replied innocently. 

Ruby refused and not 5 minutes later she was shocked once again as a nylon covered shoeless foot stroked her calf.

“What are you doing? Someone will see” she was blushing now. She had forgotten that white skin could flush like that.

But Christina didn’t stop. She slid her foot up under Ruby’s tight skirt and caressed her inner thigh. Before she could go any further Ruby closed her legs tight together and grabbed Christina by the ankle.

“You are getting punished later” She said in that strict tone Christina loved.

Christina smiled, mission accomplished.

“Oh _no_ missy, this is not something for you to smile about.” Ruby said deviously as she leaned in a bit and lowered her voice. “You are going to get a spanking, 20 hard spanks to be precise. When I’m done with those I’m going to bend you over and fuck you until you are just about to peak, then I’m going to stop and leave you there, dripping and naked while I cook”

Christina moaned again but this time it wasn’t fake.

They left shortly after that, getting a cab home.

Once they got home Ruby’s transformation began to reverse, it never lasted long the first time with a new body.

Ruby went to the bathroom to clean herself while Christina unpacked in the kitchen.

Christina didn’t want to tell Ruby, but she was happy that the transformation ended before they would have sex again, she didn’t want anyone but Ruby.

Ruby came back down in a more relaxed and makeup free state, this was the way Christina loved her the best.

Ruby smiled as she noticed Christina watching her, her lover was always watching. She backed Christina back into the kitchen, so she was pressing the blond up against the marble island.

“Turn around and bend over” Ruby ordered in a lustful voice.

Christina obey without hesitation, lifting up her dress and pulling down her panties as she did so.

Ruby wastes no time before caressing her bare cheeks, she loved that itty bity white butt.

Christina gasped as the first spank fell like rain on her bottom.

-SMACK-

-SMACK-

-SMACK-

-SMACK-

-SMACK-

Ruby switched sides now.

-SMACK-

-SMACK-

-SMACK-

-SMACK-

-SMACK-

Christina was rubbing her legs together trying to find some relief.

-SMACK-

-SMACK-

-SMACK-

-SMACK-

-SMACK-

Ruby now switched to the middle and lower, her hand coming back wet with every spank.

-SMACK-

-SMACK-

-SMACK-

-SMACK-

-SMACK-

Christina was a mess by now, she was slightly crying out of pain and frustration. But true to her word Ruby gently parted the wet lips, circling her lover’s clit with the wetness before plunging two fingers deep into the beautiful blonde. They both moaned at the feeling. Ruby pulled out, much to Christina’s dismay, before reentering her with three fingers, filling her. Christina could barely stand being in her own body at this point. When they got to the point where Christina was begging Ruby took pity on her lover and let her come. The blonde almost collapsed into a puddle once the came down from her high.

Ruby helped her up onto the island counter and began cleaning her up with a cloth. Once she was done, she quickly ran up to the bedroom and got Christina’s pajamas and a warm robe. She helped her dress and went into the library to get the book Christina had been reading.

So there they were, after one of the best days Ruby had ever had. She was singing along to the radio while cooking one of her favorite meals. Her lover was sitting, well fucked, relaxed, and reading a book in the breakfast nook.

She wanted immortality too, she wanted this forever. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The talk and a glass of wine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI8MT5lVU5c

After dinner they were quietly enjoying a glass of wine in the low candlelight of the living room when Ruby broke the silence.

“What were you like as a child”

Christina blinked in confusion at the question.

“Where is this coming from?” She asked.

“It’s just I don’t really know anything about you from before Ardham” Ruby replied.

Christina hummed for a second, she had a habit of doing that when she was stalling, Ruby had noticed.

“I was a rather sheltered child, I guess. I didn’t have any friends and my father wanted a boy, so I always tried to stay out of sight” She explained.

“What was it like growing up with you father?” Ruby pressed which caused Christina to finish her glass before pouring herself another glass of the expensive red wine.

“I watched him for my entire life, I _hated_ the air he breathed and the way the staff and townspeople hung on his every word. Since I was old enough to understand what it meant I wished for his death and demise” She took a mouthful before continuing “ When the Davenport’s died and left William in his care he was 13 and I was 10, but even then I loved him and hated all the attention my father bestowed upon him all the same. William, my sweet William, so beautifully made and I am forever grateful that he taught me everything my father taught him but…” Christina trailed off.

Ruby didn’t know whether to press further, she knew Christina loved William, but she didn’t know how or for how long. But she didn’t need to, Christina continued without prompting.

“He loved me with a pure and noble heart, but I hated him. It should have been me. _I_ should have been my fathers’ heir.”

Christina stood up, ranting at this point.

“you tell me what’s more wrong, that I too wished to be great or that my father wished he had a son?”

She didn’t wait for an answer before a sad look crossed her face.

“The last thing I ever said to William was that I didn’t want _him_ , I wanted to _be_ him”

Ruby let out a humorless little laugh at the obscene way Christina actually got her wish granted. 

“Were you and William ever a thing?” Ruby asked, Christina had admitted to both loving and hating him, and honestly Ruby wasn’t sure if Christina was into men and women like herself or just women.

“Why, you can’t be jealous of a dead man Ruby” the blonde replied once she had calmed herself a bit.

Getting drunker by the minute however she missed the seat and landed on her ass on the floor next to Ruby’s feet. She laughed a bit but didn’t get up, instead she positioned herself to lean on her lover’s thighs while looking up at her.

Ruby let out a small sigh at the sight of the blonde on her knees before her but repeated her question all the same. 

“No, he tried to make advances once when I was 17, and I am a bit ashamed to admit that I told him that I didn’t have any attraction towards him. But if the price of him teaching me magic was sleeping with him then I would” Christina admitted with a drunken blush.

“Don’t be ashamed of you ambition” Ruby said stroking the silky hair

“I basically told him I would be his _whore_ in exchange for magic”

“What did he say to your proposition?”

“He told me that he would never take advantage of any woman, especially not me, and then he offered to marry me to keep my father from selling me off once I turned 18” She replied with a small but fond smile.

“Wait you were _engaged_ to William?” Ruby had not seen that one.

Christina nodded against her thigh.

“Until he died. Father never knew as I kept his body and perfected his metamorphoses work”

“So, in another live you would have married him. Instead you are now wearing his skin and fucking me with it” Ruby mused out loud.

“He is more useful to me in dying than he ever could be while living” Christina said but somehow it didn’t sound cold, there was love behind the statement.

“Your children would be the whitest” Ruby said after a while, amusement evident in her voice.

Christina laughed, really laughed at that.

“They would have been translucent” she agreed.

Ruby pulled Christina up and placed her on her lap as a thought hit her.

“So if you never married William then you never had to sleep with him” She asked

Christina shook her head and wondered where Ruby was going with this.

“And I’m guessing that if you had to sleep with any man it would have been William?”

Once again Christina nodded.

“Does that mean that you’ve never been with a man? Miss Braithwhite are you a virgin?” Ruby asked before placing a soft kiss on the blonde’s collarbone.

“Ruby I’ve fucked you as both a man and a woman more times that we can count. A few hours ago I was bend over the island with you three fingers deep in me, what makes you think I’m a virgin” She asked both amused and offended.

“But you’ve never been wit-“

“Darling, virginity is about more that just getting penetrated with a penis, I lost mine to a friend when I was 19 and _trust_ me there were no penises involved” 

Ruby nodded but her one track horny mind wouldn’t move on.

“But I could still be your first?” She pressed

“You are a dog with a bone! It wouldn’t be my first as I am not a virgin” She stressed sobering up a bit.

“Okay then I’ll rephrase, I want to fuck you as a man. To be the first thing, that isn’t fingers, inside you”

Christina almost recoiled at the thought.

“I will not sleep with a man, even if it is you under the skin”

“You were willing to sleep with William” Ruby said, knowing it was a low blow.

“Yes, when I was 17 and _desperate_ ”

They seemed to have reached a stalemate in their conversation. Ruby decided to deflect a bit.

“Which friend did you lose your virginity to then?” she asked

“My God Ruby, all the questions. Why don’t you go first? When, where and to whom did you lose yours?” her tone left no room for debate.

Ruby’s responds however, was immediate.

“You wanna know? Fine! I was 13, it was in the backroom of a bar, mamma had been gone for over a month, there was no more money and no more food. Leti was so starved that she passed out. So I went to a bar and met a man who paid me 4 dollars for the most painful 50 seconds of my life”

“I’m sorry”

Ruby shrugged, she wasn’t. The 4 dollars had saved her and Leti’s lives, I was another week before their mother returned and they would have died if she hadn’t. And she was far from the only underage black girl from the south side who had to sell herself to survive. It was part of her story.

“Marilyn Oswin, she was this tall raven-haired girl whose family owned the property next to our summerhouse. Onec we got caught in a thunderstorm and had to wait it out in this tiny beach cottage. We found some alcohol and got very drunk which resulted in her kissing me, one thing let to another and we slept together… I never saw her again after that and 2 months later I got invited to her wedding” Christina explained.

“Wow, were you that bad at it that she married a _man_?” Ruby couldn’t help but joke.

Christina gave her a light shove while remaining seated on her lap, this caused them to fall backwards on the sofa. Which Christina took advantage of by sealing their mouths and grinding down onto her lover’s lap. Wine always made her horny.

When they came up for air Ruby traced the blondes now swollen pink lips with the thumb.

“I think I have a solution for you wanting to fuck me” Christina admitted.

“Really?” Ruby asked curiously

“There is an ancient spell from Lesbos that supposedly allows a woman to grow a phallus from her clit” Christina spoke.

And by God Ruby loved her skinny Witch.

In the days that followed it didn’t take Christina long to find and research the spell. It was shockingly simple, drinking a potion that was more or less just a tea and saying some words in Greek. And that had been it. The build up to it, however?

Ruby had made Christina take a warm and soothing bath to relax her. She had been met with a glass of white wine and a platter of fruit in the bathroom as she had entered while Ruby had been doing something in the bedroom. After about 20 minutes Ruby and summoned her into the bedroom.

The hallway was filled with rose petals and Christina could tell by the shine to them that Ruby had created them with magic, the thought made her proud. There was soft music coming from the bedroom and as she entered, she was met with a softly candlelit room, there were rose petals on the floor and on the bed and tender music from a record. It was moving and a little cheesy, Ruby was treating her like a bride on her wedding night in those trashy romance books she had seen Leti read. 

But the fact that all of this was done for her. Because Ruby care about her and wanted to make her “First time” romantic and perfect was what really moved her.

Ruby, who like Christina, was only dressed in a satin robe came up to her and took her hand. Pulling her into a dance, following the soft tunes. And honestly this was easily one of the best moments in the blonde’s life.

They danced for awhile before a presence made itself know by pressing into Christina’s thigh.

“How do you want me?” Christina asked as she reached down to touch the phallus. In her mind she had just named it “phallus” it was that or “Thing” and she was pretty sure Ruby wound object to that.

Ruby wasn’t listening, Christina was touching her just how she taught her from all the times the blonde had slept with her as William.

“Huh?” Ruby asked causing Christina to huff in amusement.

“How do you want me?” She asked again.

“In every way possible, I want to do sinful almost illegal things to you. But for now, this time I just want you on the bed” Ruby moaned as Christina’s grip on her firmed.

“On my knees or on my back” Christina asked in a voice that almost made Ruby bust on the spot.

“Lay down and let me take care of you” Ruby said pulling away a bit from her lover.

The blonde disrobed before climbed slowly onto the bed.

Ruby wasn’t sure anymore if there was a God, but the image of Christina naked on the bed with the rose petals made her want to believe again.

Ruby laid down between the slender legs and began kissing, licking, and sucking any skin she came near, her well-practiced tongue had her lover arching off of the bed in no time. When she felt Christina was relaxed and ready enough, she sat up between her legs and lined herself with wet and welcoming entrance of the blonde. They made eye contact and with a deep breath Christina nodded permission to her.

In one cocksure movement it was done, they were connected in the most intimate way and tho she would without a doubt deny it, Ruby swore she saw tears in Christina’s eyes. She gave her a while to adjust to the new and foreign sensation, holding herself on her elbows above her. After a bit Christina let out a staggered breath.

“You can move now” She said in a surprisingly soft tone.

Ruby didn’t have to be told twice and moved gently back and forth in the wet heat that had welcomed her so.

Unlike Christina who had plenty of experience in Williams body, Ruby hadn’t practiced with her new, temporary, phallus. So her movements weren’t as smooth as she wanted them, and she didn’t last long. But they had time she rationalized. 

But the most important part was the fact that Christina came in her arms. It wasn’t an earth-shaking orgasm, but it was intimate. The two women in their embrace, sharing what Ruby was finally comfortable enough calling _love_. 

They stayed like that for a while until they felt Ruby’s phallus shrinking back into a clit and Ruby rolled off of her lover.

Christina moved after a bit and snuggled into the other woman’s side before falling asleep.


	5. Isle of Lesbos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christina shouting at white men... and more?

Over the past few weeks Christina had acted strange, she had been more withdrawn from Ruby. Usually she would wake her with a kiss before leaving to, whatever it was she did, and she would greet her in the same way when she returned. But lately she hadn’t initiated anything. She would still absolutely reck Ruby as William, but in her female form there wasn’t even a touch. At first Ruby had thought that their…Love making? Whatever you’d call it, was too intimate and that the blonde was distancing herself from the vulnerability. But William still held her so tight and tenderly.

It all culminated one afternoon. Ruby had been over to Leti’s, her highly irritable pregnant sister had taken Christina’s _bullshit_ advise and now had two lovers fussing over her, she had thus kicked both of them out of the house for the day. Claiming that she needed a day with her sister, alone.

And honestly it had been a good time, they hadn’t argued and Leti had to admit that sleeping with a woman was different, a good different.

So when she came home to find Christina yelling at two white men in the study she was surprised.

“Please reconsider Miss Braithwhite, your father must be rolling in his grave” the sweaty grey-haired man urged.

“The estates, the fortune and the companies are my legal right as the last Braithwhite heir and my late father’s _opinion_ stopped mattering when he died” Christina sounded mad, real mad. Usually her tone was annoyed but this was anger.

“Miss Braithwhite...” Tried the tall younger one.

“Seeing as this is not the 1800’s and Miss Baptiste is not my _slave_ , but a legal citizen of sound mind able to inherit as the law prescribes, I see no reason other than your blatant and quite frankly _middleclass_ racism”

Ruby smiled a bit but stayed hidden, she wanted to hear more.

“The amount this amasses to, Miss Braithwhit-“ The tall one tried again.

“Mr. Jones if you do not sign this I will instead testament the entire thing to the ACLU” Christina... Threatened?

The grey lawyer, Mr. Jones sighed, nodded at the tall one before they both signed something.

“There, two witness signatures. The beneficiary of your last will and testament is now Miss Ruby Athena Baptiste. Should Miss Baptiste be unable to receive the inheritance it will be held in a trust until the oldest child of Miss Lewis and Mr. Freeman is of age at 21” the Lawyer confirmed.

And Ruby, stupidly, gasped which gave away her position.

“Ruby” Christina breathed softly.

“Gentlemen, you may leave. Your opinion on this matter has been made clear and I will be seeking new representation for my private and business affairs in the future” She said, dismissing them with a wave of her hand.

Once the men had left, Ruby picked up the will.

“Not that you telling off racists isn’t hot, but what was that about?”

“Didn’t you pretty much hear everything” Christina asked smugly staying on the opposite side of the desk from Ruby

“I heard arguing and I can guess the cause”

“The cause is white men trying to get me deemed mentally unfit for wanting to name a black woman my heir”

“Aren’t you gunning for eternal life” Ruby asked with a raised brow

“I am leaving you a little more than 5.9 million dollars in total this includes all properties, companies, shares, jewelry, artworks, cash and miscellaneous objects” Christina deflected.

“Don’t try to distra- wait what? Christina that is an insane amount of money” Ruby said stunned.

“Well it’s all ill-gotten from the very beginning of the transatlantic slave trade anyway so if anyone deserves to spend it…” She trailed off.

Ruby made her way around the desk to touch her lover, to try and understand what had caused this.

But Christina flinched away from her and turned her head towards the open window.

“Okay I am tired of this. I gave you time but now you have to tell me what the hell is going on” Ruby got angry, she didn’t want to, but it had been weeks.

“it’s your perfume, it is making me sick” Christina admitted in a low tone.

“That’s is? You could have just told me. No wait you didn’t have any problem when you were William” Why was Christina lying to her? She swore that she would never lie to Ruby.

“I think I’m dying” Christina said as she sat down on the desk, exhausted.

“What?” this time Ruby wasn’t angry, she was worried.

Christina nodded.

“I am exhausted all the time, I cant keep William on for more than 2 hours, I feel sick to my stomach no matter what I do, I haven’t been able to hold anything down, doing lab work is making me dizzy, I am angry at everything and your perfume smells like wet sheep”

Ruby laughed, until her stomach cramped, and tears were rolling down her cheeks.

“Baby, it there any chance that maybe your pregnant? Because those symptoms don’t sound like dying, they sound like Leti and Mamma when she was pregnant with Leti” she said gently touching Christina’s knees.

“How would I be pregnant Ruby, I only sleep with wom-“ then realization hit her.

Christina kept mumbling soft ‘oh no’s’ as she jumped off of the desk, took a book up from the draw and got another from the bookshelf.

She quickly flipped through the one from the self and put it next to the one on the desk.

“Oh my god” she said hiding her face between her hands.

“What’s wrong” Ruby asked gently.

This time Christina laughed, but it came out with a sob.

“Any ejaculation will be female” Christina quoted from the book

Confused Ruby nodded.

“No you don’t get it, I didn’t either, this is from the ancient Greek island of Lesbos…there were children on the island but only girls… Any ejaculation will be female” Christina stretched.

But Ruby kept looking confused.

Christina sighed

“I mistranslated it, it thought it meant that any ejaculation from the phallus while it was there would be like a normal female climax but”

“Oh” Ruby said as she finally got it “But instead it meant that any pregnancy from it will be a girl”

Christina nodded wordlessly.

“I guess the good news it that I’m not dying” Christina said, still stunned.

“Is there anyway magically to take care of it?” Ruby asked carefully feeling like she was walking on eggshells.

“You don’t want her?” Christina asked, she sounded so dispassionate, Ruby hated her like that.

“Don’t put words into my mouth” Ruby replied.

“I do so like putting things into you mouth”

“ _Christina_ ”

“ _What_!”

“You are an unmarried white heiress from old money, society will not allow you to have a black or mixed daughter” Ruby was being realistic, Christina would be shunned from everywhere and their daughter would never fit in anywhere.

“I don’t play by their rules” Christina argued.

“You will be called a whore”

“Maybe I _like_ being called that”

“You will be called a traitor”

“ _Good_ ”

“The Clan will put a burning cross on our front yard”

“They won’t get past the wards”

“They could hurt our daughter” Ruby all but shouted

That seemed to the blonde up.

“Christina, this is Chicago not your huge estate in Ardham with acres of land and high walls. There are people out there, the kind of people who killed Emmet Till, who wouldn’t hesitate to rape and kill our little girl before she is even old enough to know that the world is an evil place.”

The thing was that Ruby did want children, and the universe letting her have a child with Christina was a gift. But she was so scared of what that would mean in a world like this, where no one would even lift a finger if her daughter was being hurt in public. Where she would not be able to use the same toilet or drink from the same water fountain as her white mother.

“Then we move back to Ardham and I will build you a castle there” Christina offered.

Ruby sighed.

“ _Baby_ , that’s not a solution, we can’t keep her hidden away forever”

"Leti is mixed"

"Yes but with a _black_ mother! you would not be able to hold her hand in public"

Christina swallowed and nodded.

“I’ll look into ways to get rid of it” she said before leaving the room.

Ruby went to the kitchen. Cooking would calm her, and it was past dinner time anyway.

She was left with her abundance of thoughts alone, and was slowly sorting them. When the lasagna was done, she called upstairs to Christina.

After a few minutes she went up to get her, Christina was always in her own little zone when she was reading.

But their upstairs reading room was empty, so was the bathroom and the bedroom.

On Ruby’s bedside table, as there had been so many times before, was a note.

Ruby hastily opened it.

“My Darling,

I will look into solving our problem,

You know I will do anything you ask.

Even this, but I need some time.

Love, Christina”

Ruby went over to the dresser and found that some of Christina’s clothes and stuff were missing. She then hesitantly opened her lover’s jewelry box and noticed that the letter and the ring from Christina’s mother was gone as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ajusted for inflaction the $ 5.9 million Christina willed Ruby around 1958 is 53.5 million today :O  
> https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/


	6. The oatmeal of food

Ruby froze, she was gone, she had left her…. Just like Mamma. Had Ruby done this? Had she caused her Witch to leave her? The note said that she would take care of it and implied that she would be back? Didn’t it… Ruby read and reread the note over and over. Neither of them had ever said the words but she knew for a fact that Christina loved her, and as the note said would do anything for her. But the fetus growing within her, their daughter, did she love Ruby enough to kill it simply because she had asked her to? Would Ruby do the same if the roles were reversed?

Ruby shook her head. She wouldn’t need to do the same because everyone knew that William lived in the house and that Ruby frequently stayed over, and while there was still racism and stigma surrounding that it was milder when it was a black woman having a child with a white man. But vice versa? No one would readily accept a white woman having a baby with a black man, let alone a black woman. She had done the right thing in telling Christina to get rid of it, but she hadn’t counted on Christina being affected enough to leave.

After a week of waiting she called Leti to come over. She didn’t mention what had happened or how empty and huge the house felt without Christina, but Leti must have sensed something because without complaint she agreed and hurried to the North side.

Christina had shown Ruby the spell to let her sister onto the property, she wanted Ruby to know that this was her house as well. The basement was of course still off limits and heavily warded.

So when the doorbell rang Ruby lowered the wards and let her sister in. The food was cold, and Ruby had enough wine for both of them when Leti gently asked where Christina was.

When Ruby didn’t answer Leti reached across the table and held her hand.

“Did something happen between the two of you?” she asked.

Ruby sighed heavily and began.

“When I got home from yours a week ago, Christina was yelling at two lawyers, they were arguing over her testament”

“Okay?”

“Christina named me her heir. She is leaving me over 5 million dollars” Ruby explained.

“What? That is insane! Why would she do that?” Leti asked stunned

“Because she thought she was dying”

“wait, she thought she was? She isn’t?” Leti wasn’t following

“No the symptoms she thought was death are closer to pregnancy symptoms” Ruby smiled a bit as she explained that. In hindsight it was a little funny.

“Oh God, she cheated on you? Where is she, I will kill her myself. No one steps out on my sister”

“Before you murder her let me finish. The baby is mine, we did a spell and apparently she was to horny translate ancient Greek correctly because the spell gave me the ability to impregnate her”

“I need wine” Leti said dryly

“Leti”

Ruby tried, but Leti held up one finger to pause her and finished Ruby’s half empty glass of red wine in one go.

“Okay, so you two did some freaky sex spell and you got her pregnant. Understood. But where is she now?” Leti said.

“I told her that we had to get rid of it and she ra-“

“You did what? Ruby Athena I thought you were raised better than that. You don’t just tell a pregnant woman to get rid of her baby, your baby” Leti was livid.

“You know that she cannot have a black baby, she is unmarried an-“

“Do you honestly think she cares? Look at her life, look at her choices. If any white woman wouldn’t give a fuck about her baby being half black its Christina Fucking Braithwhite” Leti was vaguely aware that she was indeed defending the white devil woman, something that would likely never happen again. 

“I don’t know where she went, she left a note, but she is just gone” Ruby’s voice broke a bit on the last word, and she had to look away.

“I need something of hers, something personal or bodily” Leti said in a demanding voice.

“Why?”

“I was taught how to scry for someone, so we are going to try to find your white devil”

“Wouldn’t she be protected against that?” Ruby asked.

“She wants you to find her” Leti said with a shrug.

Finding something to use for the spell was difficult. Christina burned the hairs from her brush regularly, the same with any nail clippings and the invulnerability spell meant that she didn’t really bleed from wounds that much. Then Ruby remembered, once while having rather rough sex the blonde had lifted the spell because she wanted to bruise. And while she was receiving her flogging, the welts had sprung open and Ruby had grabbed the nearest thing to them, a discarded silk scarf on the bed and used it to stop the bleeding before Christina had begged her to use her tongue instead. Ruby felt heat pool in her stomach at the memory.

The blood had ruined the scarf but for some reason Ruby had kept it. It was in her purse.

When she handed it over to Leti she offered no explanation as to why Christina’s blood was on it and her sister didn’t ask.

They used the map in the study and while Leti did her ting Ruby was waiting in anticipation. What is she was still close? What would she say to her? What is she wasn’t close at all, not even in the county anymore?

She was pulled out of her thought by Leti calling her name and pointing to the map.

Maine. Christina was in Maine? 

“What is she doing in Maine?” Ruby asked

“Hell if I know”

“This doesn’t specify which town”

“I’m not that good yet and she is still warded, Maine is as good as it gets”

“Well I can’t possibly search all of Maine Leti” Ruby snapped 

“Don’t use that tone with me, it’s your girlfriend” Leti snapped back

Then Ruby realized that the same folder that Christina had put the will in had a list of the properties, maybe one of them was in Maine.

The list was long and both women were continually stunned by the fact that the Braithwhite family had properties in every major city in every state. Two in Maine, but there was one that stood out. It was listed as a waterfront property from 1916, valued at just under 190.000 dollars and considering the high prices of every other property, even the one in Augusta, this one seemed to be the cheapest and smallest.

“Guess you’re going to Cape Elizabeth” Leti said.

That was more than a 17-hour drive Ruby mused, and any airline that actually flew from Chicago to Maine most likely wouldn’t allow black people on board the plane. Then she remembered the fetching redhead in the basement and the potions on their vanity. The flight shouldn’t take more than a few hours 3 at the most that would be plenty of time to be Elizabeth while in the air.

The sisters said their goodbyes and the next morning Ruby called and ordered the plane tickets for her “boss’s wife” Mrs. Elizabeth Davenport, she would fly out at noon leaving her time to pack. She had never been to Maine but figured it might be a bit windier that South side Chicago. 

By the time she had reached the airport she was a nervous mess, she had never flown before and didn’t know anyone who had, well maybe apart from Christina. Which only lead her thoughts to the blonde she was looking for. Had she gotten rid of it? Was Ruby scared that she had or hadn’t terminated the pregnancy?

Being white and pretty meant that her nervous disposition wasn’t seen as threatening, but was handled gently and almost affectionately by the staff and flight attendants. And after taxi she had been given a glass of white wine and some peanuts. The older woman sitting next to her had offered her a pill to relax but she had politely declined. The woman, Mrs. Walker, had asked why she was flying to Maine and Ruby had lied and told her that her was there for business and that she missed him and wanted to surprise him. Mrs. Walker had gotten a look on her face like she’d sucked on a lemon and warned her to never surprise a man like that, she had done it once with her Ted and always made sure he was expecting her from then on. Mrs. Walker was a nosy woman and had asked Ruby where her wedding ring was. Ruby hadn’t noticed that she’d never gotten a ring to go with her lie. She told Mrs. Walker that it had been stolen and Mrs. Walker simply shook her head and replied “Negros” before returning to her magazine.

The journey from Chicago to Cape Elizabeth was long, tiring and over sooner than Ruby was ready for. Before she knew It, the taxi had dropped her off at the address she had given. Where she hoped to find her love. 

Her skin was beginning to itch, the transformation would reverse within the hour. The house was dark and there wasn’t anyone around. Ruby had clearly made a mistake, if Christina was still in Maine she had gone to Augusta. She needed to leave and find some place safe and locked before she transformed back. She stood up and got off of the front porch when a red car pulled into the driveway. She couldn’t see the driver but she knew in her soul that it was Christina.

The blonde didn’t say a word in acknowledgment as she walked to the passenger side and pulled out a large paper bag.

“we are having smoked salmon with potatoes and gravy” she said as she walked past Ruby to unlock the door.

Ruby followed her into the house, it wasn’t at all what she’d expect. It was an original house from the early 1900’s but it had been restored in light blue and white colors it felt homey and friendly and like the house was almost sentient. She trailed behind into the kitchen witch felt like the heart of the house, it wasn’t as bright as the rest of the house and hadn’t been restored simply painted in a soft beige color which matched the original tiles on the walls. On the counter was an open book with handwritten recipes. Ruby recognized the writing as Christina’s mothers.

Christina sat the grocery bag on the counter and began unpacking.

“Go wash up, your transformation is almost done, dinner will be ready by then” Christina said without looking at her.

“Okay” Ruby simply said as she turned and exited the kitchen.

She made an educated guess and walked upstairs to find the bathroom. The first door she opened however was a kids room, the walls were light pink and in a golden paint was the name “Clarissa” the paint was old and so were the furnishings and the toys, a mix of a child’s room and a young adult. But this was more than likely Christina’s mother’s old bedroom.

She gently closed the door and opened the next which was a guest bedroom. Third time was the charm, and she found an old-fashioned bathroom. She turned on the tabs for the tub, which only ran cold she discovered, and began the process of shedding her skin into the bin and washing the blood off. 

When she was done, she realized that she never brought her suitcase up from the front porch.

She opened the bathroom door to go get it, only to be faced with her tall blonde about to knock.

“You forgot this” Christina said, handing her the case, before turning to leave.

However she did a full turn and reached down and gently lifted a piece of skin off of Ruby’s shoulder.

Before hurrying downstairs again as if Ruby was dangerous.

Ruby quickly dressed and as she left the bathroom she heard the familiar tunes of Ella Fitzgarald singing “That old black magic” she hummed along as she made her way downstairs and found Christina setting the table in the dining room and softly singing along.

“I thought you liked the new age music, Peggy lee and all that. I didn’t know you listened to this?” Ruby made herself known.

Christina looked a little surprised as she turned around but replied, nonetheless.

“The records are my mothers, nothing here past 33 I’m afraid. Plus my mother was a huge fan of Ella Fitzgarald, she used to tell me that Ella was not only the perfect human she was also sweet, beautiful and with a voice gifted by the Gods” Christina explained.

“Do you think perhaps you might have taken your mothers comments to heart a bit much?” Ruby joked at the realization that Christina had basically taken her mother’s expression for beauty and applied it to her.

Christina must have realized the same because she did give Ruby a small smile and a shrug.

“At least then we know that my mother would have liked you” she replied.

Ruby poured them both a glass of water while Christina got the food.

It tasted good, it wasn’t world class, but considering that Christina couldn’t cook it was pretty alright.

“I thought you couldn’t cook?” Ruby asked as they were finishing the meal.

“I can’t, but my mother was very precise in her recipes and I can read” 

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you mention her more than you have now” It wasn’t a question, just an observation.

“My father killed her when I was 7, when he completed the invulnerability spell… it needed a body” She replied while pushing some food around on her plate.

“What was she like?” Ruby asked

“She was beautiful, and the best mother anyone could want, she loved jazz music and would dance wildly with me as it played. She loved nature and the sea” Christina smiled. “Even at the manor in Ardham, where we spend a lot of time, she had this alter where she worshiped Poseidon. She would make offerings of honey, seaweed, shells, and sea salt. She claimed that her love for the ocean was so deep that Poseidon himself had chosen her”

“Wow”

“I know, she wasn’t well, but she was still so kind and fun and loving” Christina said fondly

“Well magic is real, so who knows if the gods are. What was her name?”

“Her name was Clarissa, she was born Rit,t from a lower noble family who fled Germany during the great war” 

“She claimed that she was almost seduced by a siren right out here in the cove when she was 15” Christina laughed at the memory of her mother’s animated telling of the tale.

“Really? Is the siren still there?” Ruby asked.

“Sadly I’ve already looked for it years ago to no avail, I think she might just have seen a pretty girl bathing”

“By the way, why Maine?” Ruby suddenly asked.

The mood dimmed a bit as Christina cleared her throat

“I used to come here to escape my father, the house you see won’t admit anyone with intention to harm, magic is weaved into its very foundation when the Ritt’s build it. But right now I just wanted to feel closer to my mother” She explained. 

So she had been right, Ruby thought. The house was magic, and it had let her in.

“But it’s Maine” Ruby playfully complained.

“What’s your vendetta against Maine?” Christina replied in a light tone.

“If it were a dish, Maine would be oatmeal” Ruby joked.

“Right and you are so well traveled miss- haven’t- left- the- state” The blonde joked back

“Well I have now, I even flew here” Ruby bragged

Christina looked fondly at her.

“And you used one of my perfumes” she noted

Ruby nodded

“I didn’t want to smell like wet sheep”

“I’m sorry about that comment” Christina said.

“And I am sorry about what I said”

And there it was the elephant in the room that they had both been ignoring. The silence was deafening by the time Ruby spoke.

“Is it stil- are you still…” she trailed off, unsure how to ask.

Christina nodded.

“I haven’t had the chance to gather all the supplies I need” she lied, looking away.

“Baby, you promised to never lie to me” Ruby said sadly.

“fine okay, I came here to be close enough to my mothers source of power to cast a spell and see the future, but the type of magic I use is based largely on calculating the right circumstance for casting, something my father never believed in and look what that got him. Anyway my internal circumstances have changed, and I can’t figure out the right calculation for casting right now” It was clear by her tone that she was frustrated.

“So the baby is keeping you from doing magic to determine whether or not to keep it?” Somehow Ruby found that a bit poetic.

“Answer me honestly, do you want kids, not hypothetically in the future, but right now?” Ruby asked her lover.

Christina had, despite what people might think, always adored kids and had always wanted them.

But she also wanted immortality, she had been forced to wait a year before she could try the spell. But she really wanted to find another way, a way where she didn’t have to kill Atticus and his kid or lose Ruby, either to betrayal or old age.

“I want a lot of things, I want you and immortality with you, and I don’t know how a baby would fit into that” she admitted.

“If we, and I mean we, find a way that doesn’t involve killing my nephew then I’m all in. But are you prepared to watch our baby grow old and die while never aging?” She asked.

“We can offer her immortality too” Christina suggested

“And if she doesn’t take it? Then we have to bury her at some point, while lying about who we are because we will be young enough to be her grandchildren”

“I want to see the future, I want to see your people get justice, respect and a better treatment. I want to be able to hold you, kiss you and call you my wife in public and I have accepted that I will have to wait for that, and I am willing to wait for it, but we might have to wait a long time, which is why I want us to be immortal” Christina explained. “I want this baby to legally be both of ours”

“I know Baby, but the future isn’t yet”

“But what if it were, what if we jumped ahead?” Christina offered. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so...time travel? yes, no, maybe? :D


	7. Time and place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wow, so much happens :D

“First of all you still haven’t answered my question and second _what_?” Ruby replied with a confused look

Christina exhaled deeply.

“The answer is yes, _if_ we can figure out a way that doesn’t screw up our lives, then I want the baby” She admitted. “But you still don’t want it.” It wasn’t a question.

“Like you said, if we can find a way that doesn’t mess up our lives, then I would be open to keeping it” Ruby agreed.

“But what did you mean about jumping ahead?” Ruby asked.

“If this world doesn’t suit us, we have the ability to find a world or a time that does. We don’t have to limit ourselves to this” Christina explained. She had given the idea a lot of thought. If Ruby’s biggest concern were society then she would find a universe or a time in the future where their relationship wasn’t a problem.

“What about Leti and the baby?” Ruby asked. While Christina had snuck into first place regarding her priorities, her baby sister was a close second. Her and Marvin didn’t really have a relationship, he’d never really gotten along with Leti and wanted nothing to do with their mamma after he left at 17. Ruby got a letter from him once a year, he was married with two kids in California. He would be fine without her, but Leti was a whole other story. 

“Nothing is stopping them from coming with us, or us from going back and visiting” Christina offered, she knew that Ruby and Leti were a package deal.

Ruby liked the thought of that. But she also knew that while Leti might be open to the idea Tic wouldn’t be, and Leti wouldn’t leave without him.

“Can we visit first?” Ruby asked, she’d like to find a place they liked before the baby comes.

It took Christina a week to find the correct spells, for holding the rift while they went through and to open it again when they wanted to go back. It was a true headache calculating the right circumstance for the spell.

But Christina wasn’t just pretty, as Ruby had joked, and she actually managed it. So off they went.

First stop was going home to get clothes, money, and essentials. They decided to drive home because Christina was to nauseas to fly, and she wanted to spend more with Ruby.

“So any wishes for when and where we should go?” Christina asked as she took her right hand off of the wheel and placed on Ruby’s thigh.

“I think it would be too weird to stay in Chicago, how about New York or something, maybe even California?” Ruby aired her thoughts

“I do not have the complexion nor the patience for anywhere in California, how about Oregon if you want the west coast”

Ruby laughed at Christina’s statement. She hadn’t been wrong.

“Nah it’s fine, New York it is” Ruby replied.

“So which year?” Christina gently asked the most important question.

“It should be a year that we wouldn’t naturally be alive, I don’t know much about time travel, but I can’t imagine running into ourselves would be a good thing”

“I’m not sure it works that way, but okay, I’m 26 and you are-“Christina stopped and glanced at the beauty in the passenger seat as it hit her that she had no idea how old she was.

Ruby grinned a bit as she realized the blonde’s plight.

“Guess” she simply said.

“Well Letitia just turned 26 and you said you remembered your mother being pregnant with her and that you took care of her, so you must be 4,5 maybe 6 years older than her” She said trying her hardest not to call her girlfriend old.

“your math skills amaze and seduce me” Ruby said with a light laugh in her voice.

“So?”

“Is it important? If we go to sometimes in the 2010’s we be in our 80’s and in a different state. I don’t think we’d run into ourselves”

“The 2010’s, it sounds made up” Christina mused.

Ruby agreed.

“So how does it feel to be fucking someone your baby sisters age?” Christina said with a squeeze to Ruby’s thigh.

“Keep bringing it up and I won’t be” Ruby said curtly.

Christina did not bring it up again.

The drive home was long and only made longer by Christina detouring them just after Concord because she saw a sign which promised the best duck fat fries in the US. Ruby had to admit that they were good, but the way Christina looked at them as they were served was sinful.

By the time they’d almost made to Albany Ruby was driving and Christina was asleep against the window in the passenger seat. Ruby pulled into a Motel which had been listed in Georges guidebook and got them a room. She realized that the car would be easy prey, but Christina looked like she was about to pass out, so she just shrugged and helped her to their room.

If the blonde hadn’t been so tired Ruby was sure that she would have frowned at the state and size of their room. But the taller woman simply took off her heels and climbed into the bed with Ruby following right behind her.

The car hadn’t been stolen and they drove on right after breakfast. it went smoothly into they reached Toledo where they were pulled over by a cop. Ruby was driving. 

The Cop kept a weary eye on Ruby in the driver seat and asked Christina if everything was alright and Christina had confirmed it.

“This vehicle matches the description of a stolen car in the area” The Cop lied.

“That must be a mistake, the car is mine” Christina said, Ruby recognized the haughty tone she was using.

“Girl, you are gonna step out of the vehicle” He said turning his attention to Ruby, who sat with both hands visible on the wheel. She wasn’t scared, she had the mark of Cain resting on her left side abdomen.

Ruby moved to open the car door and the cop pulled his gun.

For a second Christina felt every hair on her body rise, everything flashed by in an instant and yet it felt so still and focused. She mumbled something, a spell she’d never used before, if you were to ask her, she wouldn’t even be able to tell you where she’d gotten it from. But the words left her lips and the cop’s eyes went white, a small snapping sound was followed by the thud of a body hitting the ground.

“What did you do?” Ruby asked scared and slightly amused.

“He pulled his gun on you, he chose death, not knowing that it would be his own”

“Thank you” Ruby said as she started the car.

“You are the most important thing in the world to me Ruby. If anyone tried to you, I’d burned states to the ground and make sure your name is never forgotten” Christina replied looking intensely at Ruby.

And Ruby believed her. Christina would never let anything, or anyone harm her, and God help the poor soul who tried.

The last stretch was uneventful and went to bed for a few hours of sleep when they got to the North side again. 

They didn’t know what the value of a dollar would be in the 2010’s so they brought as much cash as they could, Christina also brought gold, it had seen her mothers side of the family safely out of Germany and the Ritt’s believed that gold would always hold its value.

They didn’t bring a lot of clothes, it would most likely stand out anyways, but Christina did pack a lot of magic stuff and their metamorphosis potions, just in case.

Ruby had called ahead and had arranged for Hippolyta to put the observatory key in mailbox for them to use. She had been very understanding, surprisingly, and didn’t question Ruby about anything other than how they planned to keep the riff open, Ruby said that Christina had figured out a way and that had been it. Hippolyta agreed and trusted Ruby with the key.

They waited four days to leave. Christina wanted to leave right away but she was tired and paler than usual so Ruby had forced her to stay in bed for a few days before their drive to the observatory.

After four days she insisted that she was feeling better and by noon they had pack the car and Christina drove them to the observatory. Thanks to Christina’s driving they got there faster than expected and they were both giddy with nervous energy. They’d agreed that they would stay for a week or tow to see if they liked it. If they did, they would work on getting papers and a place to live. If they didn’t, they’d go back home and find a different time and place. 

Starting the machine was easy enough but calculating and finding the right time and place was harder than either of them had realized. But then the riff glowed blue and sucked them and their belongings in before closing.

The world went dark, then they saw every color known to man, before getting spat out in a New York ally.

It was daytime when they got there and after Christina had checked that Ruby was okay and that they had everything they’d need to get home they made their way into the city to find out where they were.

They were in Manhattan it turned out, Christina’s absolute need for luxury must have seeped through her and affected the machine.

They walked for a bit looking for a acceptable hotel while taking in the city. The cars looked different and people were walking around looking down at small calculation looking devices.

Ruby suddenly stopped, across the street from them were two women. The tallest of them was a black woman wearing a colorful head scarf and a matching suit, she was kissing a shorter redhead who was holding an unhappy looking toddler on her hip. The tall woman in the suit kissed the toddler’s head and got in a cab while the redhead waved. Ruby noticed a golden ring on her left hand. 

“Did you see those women?” Ruby asked as she shyly took Christina’s hand when she caught up with her.

“I did” She replied squeezing Ruby’s hand” Seemed we picked the right time” she turned to smile at her and Ruby couldn’t help but notice that Christina looked lighter, freer, than before. She looked around at everything with childlike wonder.

After 20 some minutes they found a nice-looking hotel. The Hotel St James, the interior was warm and welcoming as opposed to the harsh tones and noises from the street outside.

“Welcome to The Hotel St James, how may I help you” A young looking woman greeted them at the front desk.

“My girlfriend and I’d like a room for two nights” Christina said. She was a bit nervous about referring to Ruby as her girlfriend in public for the first time.

But if the woman had any reaction, she didn’t show it, she just nodded and looked at the machine on her desk.

“We do have a great room available with a king size bed and a complimentary breakfast”

“Ruby?” Christina turned to see if it was okay with her girlfriend who just nodded.

“Alright, I will need a name for your reservation and your total for two nights will be 161,72”

Ruby almost choked on her own spit at that total, and even Christina whose family had more money than God blinked a few times before fishing the money out of her wallet.

Ruby and looked at the bill they’d gotten and found the time and date. 04:05 pm, November 7th, 2015. They had overshot their landing a bit.

They didn’t get a key, just a thin flexible card the size of a compact which they were told to ‘swipe’ at the door lock. Christina had excitedly examined the card while Ruby rolled her eyes and categorized the device the same as Christina’s witchcraft which she also didn’t understand. 

It took a few tried but eventually they got the door opened with the so-called key. The room had a nice homey feel to it and there were fresh flowers on the small table at the window.

Ruby almost backed away in shock as she saw the big black television set, mounted on the wall. Christina was amazed as well, they’d just gotten a television set at home, a color television, it was set in mahogany and had cost just under 300 dollars. But this was all black and bigger than Ruby’s arm span.

“I found the clicker” Ruby said picking up the remote from the dresser. It had a lot more buttons than the one she’s gotten used to. But she pressed around, and the television turned on.

They spent half an hour watching a talk show with a black female host before Christina announced that she’d take a shower before they went out to eat.

Ruby was enthralled by the television after the woman on the show introduced a man who sang.

“He’s right you know” Christina said as she disappeared into the bathroom.

“About what?” Ruby asked in a shout

“the only heaven I’ll be sent to, is when I’m alone with you” Christina quoted before closing the door.

Ruby smiled to herself and changed the channel.

After a few minutes of peace and warm water running down her body Christina was interrupted by a very overdressed, for the situation she was imagining, Ruby. Who was smiling like a fool.

“Christina, the President of the united states is a black man” she was almost giddy as she said it.

“Good for him?” Christina said as she rinsed out the shampoo from her hair.

“Christina”

“Okay, I get it, it’s a big deal for your pe-“

“Christina” Ruby said getting annoyed.

“For the blacks” Christina tried

“…”

“I got it, I recognize that it is a meaningful step towards healing the nation for black Americans” She said prideful of her phrasing.

“I trained you so well” Ruby smiled and pulled Christina away from the running water to kiss her.

As she pulled back, she realized that this was the first time in a while she was seeing Christina completely naked as herself. Her eyes automatically fell on her stomach, the mark of Cain standing out on the otherwise flawless skin which had only the slightest on bumps, it was only due to Ruby knowing that her girlfriend was pregnant that she even noticed. Christina noticed Ruby watching and placed her hand protectively over her bump. Ruby didn’t know what to say or do so she left with the excuse of calling the front desk to book a table at a restaurant.

Things were a little awkward after the shower. Neither of them knew how to approach the topic of Christina actively being pregnant or what to do with it at the moment.

Until Ruby bit the bullet.

“Have you thought about names if we’re keeping her?” She asked over Osso Bucco and wine.

“Maybe Claire or Clara, it’s a Ritt family tradition that girls’ names start with C” She explained

“Oh wow, well I guess we can’t break from tradition Christina” Ruby said teasingly.

“Don’t your family have traditions too?” Christina asked sipping her water.

“No I’m not that white” She replied

“It has nothing to do with being whi-“

“I meant to say no, I’m not that rich” Ruby interrupted

“Ruby, it really doesn’t have anything to do with that”

Ruby laughed

“Oh no your Ritt family traditions has nothing to do with the fact that you are from German aristocracy” She teased.

“You are mocking me” Christina said childishly.

“Yes, but very lovingly” she said as she leaned over the table and kissed the blonde’s pink lips.

Christina pulled back quickly

“we’re in public” She said looking around, but then she realized why Ruby had done it. No one was looking at them, no one cared.

“I was watching the news while you showered, the Supreme court ruled on marriage equality in the summer, we can legally get married anywhere, in any state.” She said.

“Are you proposing to me?” Christina asked intrigued.

“Do you want me to?” Ruby asked.

“Would you get on one knee?” Christina countered

“No, I’d face you like an equal instead of on my knees, that’s more your thing” it was a half truth half taunt.

“I’d beg you on my knees to marry me” Christina said.

“Then why haven’t you?” Ruby asked

“Why haven’t you?”

“Maybe I don’t want to marry you” Ruby said smugly

“Yes you do you just said”

“If I propose you have to take my last name” Ruby insisted and imagined Christina introducing herself as Mrs. Christina Baptiste.

But Christina shook her head.

“A stipulation from my father, if my children don’t carry the Braithwhite name they aren’t entitled to inherit”

“Hyphenated then?”

“Baptiste-Braithwhite or Braithwhite-Baptiste?” Christina asked

“Baptiste-Braithwhite, I asked you first” Ruby insisted.

“No you didn’t, you haven’t” Christina clarified.

“Fine. Marry me”

“That wasn’t a question, it sounded like a demand”

“That’s because it was. Marry me”

“Fine” Christina crossed her arms stubbornly, but her smile betrayed her.

“Fine” Ruby confirmed. And just like that they were engaged to be married. 

They held the serious tone for under a minute more before Ruby broke and laughed happily followed by Christina.

Ruby would have to get her fiancée a ring she realized, but what would be good enough for the blonde carrying their baby.

They paid got up to leave, but the moment Christina stood up she felt dizzy. She called out to Ruby as her world went black. 


	8. modern medicine

Someone at the restaurant called for an ambulance and it wasn’t long till one showed up. Two black women showed up in identical uniforms and began putting wires and what not on Christina. When she didn’t wake up they placed her on the gurney which to Ruby’s surprise had wheels. They stopped her as she followed them but after informing them that she was engaged to Christina they let her in the ambulance. One of them went around the car to drive and the other stayed in the back with Ruby and Christina.

During the ride, all Ruby could do not to panic was hold Christina’s warm but limp hand. It didn’t make sense. She had the mark. They both did. Whatever was happening shouldn’t be happening. Christina was invulnerable.

“What is your fiancées name” the woman whose nametag say Abbey asked kindly while she tapped a piece metal and plastic the size of a folded newspaper.

“Christina Braithwhite”

“And her date of birth?”

“October 9th” 

“Which year?”

“Every year”

Abbey laughed at the accidental joke. Before clarifying that she meant which year Christina was born.

Ruby knew that but couldn’t very well tell the woman that Christina was born in 1926 because that would make her 89.

“I’m not good with numbers, but she’s 26” Ruby said with a small smile. Hoping that Abbey would believe her.

“It’s okay, she’s from 89 then”

Ruby nodded but it sounded so wrong in her ears, that was more than 30 years from their own time. Leti’s baby would be 30 by the time Christina was ‘supposedly’ born in 1989. Meaning that all of these people they met, would be their future grandchildren’s age.

“Mam?” The ambulance lady asked again bringing Ruby out of her thoughts.

“Is there any known allergies or medical conditions in Miss Braithwhite’s family that could explain the loss of consciousness”

“No. I mean, I think that her mom was a bit weird and her father was a psychopath but no”

“Any stress recently?”

That almost made Ruby laugh, their lives were based around stress. From their very first meeting to the race for the Book of Names and everything with the pregnancy and time traveling.

“We recently found out that she’s pregnant, we are also moving from Chicago” Ruby explained vaguely.

Abbey didn’t have time to asked follow-up questions before the doors opened and two doctors, a man and a woman greeted them while Abbey sprouted information and number to them. Including the fact that Christina is pregnant.

As they moved her onto a hospital bed Christina woke up. The doctors began asking questions, but Christina only looked around for Ruby. Once her eyes landed on her she relaxed.

“What happened?” she asked as Ruby pushed her way between the doctors.

“You fainted” Ruby said

“I am a Braithwhite, we don’t faint, I just took a very sudden nap” Christina said a bit embarrassed.

“It seemed that you just fainted, but we would like a head CT to rule out a brain bleed we would also like an ultrasound to make sure that baby is okay” The female doctor said gently, as if Christina would spook.

Christina, who could feel that her mark was still active politely refused, she would figure this out on her own.

“Okay, it is against medical advice and I need you to sign a waver saying that you’ve been informed of the risks involved in not getting a head CT for a head injury. But I would very much still like for an OB-GYN to check you out, and make sure that your baby is okay” The doctor said.

“Baby, I know that you don’t have a lot of faith in doctors, but we should make sure that she’s okay” Ruby said.

“You don’t even want the baby” Christina said, she didn’t know why she was bringing it up now or why she was acting like this.

Ruby glanced at the Doctor who didn’t react to Christina’s revelation.

“Don’t be like that, I want to make sure that both of you are alright, you won’t do the CT thing but the least you can do is make sure that our baby is alright”

“we will give you two a moment” The male Doctor said and drew the privacy curtain around the bed as they stepped out.

“I don’t want them doing something to my head, and what the hell is an ultrasound” Christina hissed lowly once they were alone.

“How should I know? All I know it that you fainting like that isn’t normal, and I won’t risk losing you.” Ruby returned in the same tone.

“They have technology here Baby, one of the machines in the ambulance kept track of your heart. Their technology is practically magic”

Christina huffed at that. Magic was an art, whatever their machines could do now would be like calling yodeling singing.

“You just travel more than 50 years into the future while pregnant, I really think it would be safest with a checkup”

“Fine, will you stop pestering me if I agree to the sound thingy?”

“And the CT”

“Fine”

Ruby opened the curtain and after a bit the female Doctor, Doctor Keller, returned.

“I have the forms I need you to sign right here” She said.

“Thank you Doctor but it won’t be necessary, my fiancée has agreed to a full checkup” Ruby said before Christina could back out.

“Okay that great, I’ll page for an OB-GYN consult first then book a time for your CT” Doctor Keller said.

They waited a bit before a woman dressed in pink came down wheeling a machine with her on a cart. She introduced herself as Doctor Niss and lead them into a private exam room.

In there Christina laid on an exam table and asked to lift her shirt while the Doctor readied the machine.

Doctor Niss stopped in her tracks as she saw the red, raised, ram like formation of the Mark on Christina’s abdomen.

“I grew up in a cult” Christina said simply, and Ruby had to hide a smile because it wasn’t not true.

Doctor Niss quickly remembered her professionalism and warned Christina of the cold before putting the gel on her lower abdomen.

The room was filled with a fast-beating sound, like racehorses running, Doctor Niss told them that it was the baby’s heartbeat and assured them that it was very normal for it to beat that fast.

“You see right there?” Doctor Niss said to Ruby as she angled the wand on Christina to get a better view. “That is your baby”

Ruby and Christina looked at the small screen. It was black and white and barely visible, but there was something there. And they could hear it, there was a life inside Christina.

“Excuse me” Ruby said as she got up. She couldn’t stay in that room, she couldn’t breathe.

She walked and walked until she felt the cold wind around her. She realized that she was standing outside the hospital.

“You look like you could need a smoke” A white man a little older than her said and offered her a cigarette.

Ruby didn’t smoke, not really, but right now she really wanted to. She was a bit weary of taking anything from a white man. But the guy looked harmless enough and they were right outside the hospital.

She took the cigarette and the lighter and at the first inhale she felt herself relax a bit. Marvin had taught her how to smoke when they were younger, she couldn’t really afford it, so she only lit one when she was stressed, like now.

“Thank you” She said as she handed back the lighter.

“No problem, I knew that look, my wife just got an ultrasound, and we are having twins” The man took a deep puff “again”

“Oh” Ruby felt bad for the man.

“Yep, and the first set, boys, are only two which means that we’ll have four under four”

“Damn and I’m freaking out because my fiancée is pregnant with one” Ruby laughed a bit, it was scary how quickly she’d gotten used to calling Christina her fiancée, she would have to stop that when they went back to 55.

“First time?” He asked and Ruby nodded as she kept smoking.

“It’s scary the first time, but trust me I’d never be without them. Don’t get me wrong they are sticky monsters who steal your sleep and demands attention, but the love you’ll feel when you see your fiancée holding your baby for the first time, and God when you get to hold your child. Believe me you’d never trade it for anything, you’d die before letting anything happen to that tiny human” He smiled, caught up in the warm feeling of parenthood.

“I never really wanted kids, the world is so cruel and little black girls are forgotten at best, and at worst…” Ruby trailed off and shook her head.

The man only nodded.

“I’m sorry the world is still like that. That you don’t just have to deal with regular parental fear but the fear that comes with raising a black child too.” He sounded so genuine that Ruby was take aback, hearing a white man apologizing and understanding was outlandish.

“My fiancée is white, and she doesn’t understand, she was raised very sheltered, but I was afraid almost every day of my life, and raising my sister I feared for her every time she left alone. Our little black girl will grow up to be a black woman and at some point, she will be seen a disposable, aggressive or a sexual object. And historically black girls aren’t very old before they are sexualized” Ruby vented. She hadn’t event told Christina this. But even if they solved the interracial and homosexual thing by having their baby in the future she was so, so, scared of her baby being hurt or raped or worse. Because things might be better now, but she had still seen the news and heard about the unrest that still lingered in society.

They were interrupted by a familiar and quite frankly angry voice.

“There you are” Christina said as she found Ruby under the lamp light by the entrance to the Hospital.

“Christina”

“I’m going back to the hotel. I don’t know where you intent to sleep, but it will either be on the couch or in a different room”

She said before turning to leave.

Ruby put out the almost finished cigarette and send the man an apologetic look to which he just smiled and nodded understandingly.

“Hold up, Baby I’m sorry” Ruby said as she caught up to Christina.

“You smell like smoke” Christina said and kept walking.

“Christina, stop” She gripped Christina’s arm and a nagging voice it the back of her head remined her that she was forcefully gripping a white woman in public. She looked around, it was dark and the people around them floated by not even caring.

Icy blue eyes looked down at her, Christina ripped her arm away and reached into her purse. She found a couple hundreds and stuck them down Ruby’s cleavage.

“Don’t come back to the hotel tonight” She said before looking around and muttering something, there was a flash and when Ruby opened her eyes Christina was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who do you want to follow?  
> Christina intents on going back to the hotel, but what did the doctor say and does she make a detur?  
> Ruby is looking for a bar, meets a tall blond stranger and finds a place to sleep


	9. Two tales

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We follow both Christina and Ruby

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not everyone is lucky enough to spend the holidays with family this year, so Merry Crisis and a Happy New Fear.

Christina was shaking both from the cold and from anger as she magicked herself away from Ruby. Her mind was racing a hundred miles an hour and her heart was trying to match it. She was used to disappointment and abandonment, she had grown up with her father after all, but she hadn’t expected Ruby to run out of the room like that. The kind Doctor had tried to reassure her that it was normal for first time parents to get overwhelmed when they heard the heartbeat, that it made it more real for them, but Christina was furious anyway.

She had reappeared a few blocks from the hospital, nothing major but she was exhausted and didn’t have the energy to teleport all the way to the hotel, so she decided to walk. She had walked maybe 6 or 7 blocks by the time she realized that she was going in the wrong direction. She had ended up in a street with high end boutiques, and as she turned to walk back a piece in a window caught her eye.

It was a pants suit but for women, it was in a blue, black and red-ish pattern. Both the blazer jacket and the pants, Christina couldn’t see the shirt underneath but a green scarf with zebras was thrown around the mannequins neck. It was stunning and Christina wanted it.

“What do you think?” a voice from behind her said.

“It’s beautiful” Christina replied as she turned to find a brunette woman, a bit taller than her, looking at her.

The woman was dressed in black and grey tweed pants, a warm looking cardigan, ankle boots and a long white fur coat which was open. She looked to be Christina’s age or perhaps a few years older with a good skincare routine.

“It really is, but for some reason it wont sell, maybe it’s waiting for you” She said with a smile. “I’m Sterling Rose”

“Christina Braithwhite”

“Do you want the suit Christina Braithwhite?” Sterling asked.

“I gave my fiancée all of my cash, but I’ll be back tomorrow to get it” She replied.

Sterling shrug.

“Your coat is vintage, and excellent condition… 1956?”

“close 55”

“Well you obviously have great taste then, come on, I’ll open up and the suit will be a gift”

“I don’t even know you, I’m also engaged” Christina said but followed Sterling around the building to the backdoor anyway.

“Hmm, I have two older brothers, Evan and Jackson. I lost my virginity at 18 in Madrid and my favorite food is Kraft Mac N’ Cheese. Now you know me” Sterling supplied as she unlocked the gate and the door.

Christina laughed

“I’m also engaged”

“And as picturesque as you are, I am, unfortunately, straight” Sterling said with a wink as she pushed the door open and motioned for Christina to go in.

Christina entered the messy backroom and took off her coat as Sterling went to turn on the lights in the boutique.

Sterling called out to her and Christina joined her in the store.

The boutique was beautiful from the inside, kept in cream white and soft pastel colors. It seemed to scream luxury. Christina noticed that the tags on most of the clothes and items has “925 Rose” written on the and Christina smiled at bit at the wit.

“These are your own designs?” Christina asked.

Sterling was finding the suit in Chrisitna’s size while the blonde was browsing.

“Yeah, I was always the one who didn’t know what I wanted to do, Evan is the Heir, Jackson is the spare and in finance and I am the princess with an overbearing mother”

“That doesn’t explain the store and fashion line though”

“Oh right that, well I did a bit of everything and then one day a friend and I were shopping for something for a galla and the boutique didn’t carry her size so I decided to design a dress that would flatter her body and highlight all of her strong points… one thing led to another and now I have a size inclusive high scale fashion line” Sterling explained with a fond smile.

“Wow, can I look at something for my fiancée while I’m here? Our luggage got lost at the airport” Christina half asked and explained.

“Of course do you have a picture of her?”

Fuck. Christina thought, no she actually didn’t have any pictures of Ruby, like at all, which was weird because her fiancée was so fucking beautiful.

“Eh not on me” Christina tried

“Oh that’s fine, just give me her name and I’ll find her on Facebook” The taller brunette said pulling up the calculator looking device that Christina refused to believe was a telephone.

“We are not on The Face Book, and our telephones were in the luggage that got lost” She lied

“Damn that sucks, I would die if I lost my phone” Sterling said as she searched the check out desk and found a pen and some paper.

“Draw her silhouette then” Sterling instructed

That Christina could do. She had worshiped that body enough time and with all the custom-made dress she had bought her she knew the singers measurements by heart.

\---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

In the other end of town Ruby has succeeded in finding a bar to get drunk at. It was a weird feeling drinking in a mixed crowed but after two glasses of Gin and Tonic she didn’t really care anymore. The mood in the bar wasn’t a party mood, it was filled with lonely looking heartbroken people and Ruby wondered if that was what she looked like to an observer. She shook her head, she refused let some little white Miss Thing get her down. The talk about her running off to the North side with a white man had spread like wildfire and an older woman had warned her not to get too comfortable as white people were fickle and she’d soon find herself lonely and left behind. She just hadn’t expected it to happen in New York 2015. But fuck the blonde bitch, she didn’t own her.

The band, who had been mediocre at best, finally stopped playing and Ruby gathered herself before getting up on stage. She began humming and the guitarist picked up on the tune.

Ruby took a deep breath and looked out on the audience, she was about to sing as she saw a tall, handsome blond man looking at her, he had a hungry look in his eyes.

Ever the professional Ruby began singing despite her shock.

Some people were dancing, some were just swaying in their seats and a few were singing along as she finished Buddy Holly’s That’ll be the day. She was met with a weak round of applause and as she got off of the stage, with the intention of finding a cheap hotel for the night, she was handed a glass of G&T by Mr. Handsome.

“You sing like a siren” He opened

“I know” Ruby said. Confidence was sexy after all.

“I’m Arron” He introduced himself.

“Ruby”

“I’ve been watching you drink, Ruby. I get the feeling you’ve got a hard life”

Ruby, how knew better than to drink anything handed to her by a white man, laughed.

“You don’t know half of it”

“I wonder what it takes to please you” he said as he moved closer. Pressing her up against the bar.

Ruby pulled him closer, letting her mind believe that he was William, that he was Christina. 

\---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Spending time with Sterling was easy and Christina found herself relaxing as she tried on more clothes and found things that Ruby would like too.

She also found out that the telephone Sterling used was almost magic, Christina had said that she was a bit hungry at some point, Sterling had typed something on her telephone and within 20 minutes a guy had knocked on the front door of the store holding two bags of Chinese food, despite it being 12.32 am. 24-hour delivery Sterling had said.

While they were eating Sterling asked Christina a bit about herself.

“So tell me, you accent, I can’t place it”

“You are not actually the first person to say that. My mother was of German descent and spoke it fluently, so naturally she taught it to me when I was a kid. It was our secret language and thus the first language I learned”

“Naturally” Sterling agreed

“I grew up in New Hampshire, in a small town, but was mostly taught by governesses who were British or French, so my accent is a bit weird and all over the place” She explained trying to stick to the truth while keeping it vague.

“Small town, obviously well off by your sense of style and growing up with governesses, we are almost the same person, I grew up in Scarsdale and couldn’t leave New York state until I was 18” Sterling lamented.

“Can I ask why you looked so angry when I saw you in street?” The brunette carefully asked as she poured Christina another glass of wine.

“It’s personal” Christina immediately snapped.

“I’m sorry if I’m overstepping, you just looked really upset” she said kindly.

“No I’m sorry I shouldn’t have snapped like that. You’ve been nothing but good to me”

“It’s okay really, I’m guessing it has something to do with you fiancée?”

“Yeah, we got into a fight, well not really a fight like that, I am expecting, and she didn’t handle the ultrasound well” Christina said as she raised the glass to her lips.

The brunette moved faster than lightning as she snatched the wine glass out of her hand.

“What are you doing drinking when your pregnant? My mother drank with Evan and trust me it shows” Sterling scolded the shocked blonde.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know, like I said I’ve been very sheltered” Christina apologized

“It’s okay just promise me, no more alcohol”

Fuck. 

\---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Arron kissed down Ruby’s neck into her cleavage, running his hands slowly up her outer thigh.

Ruby leaned her head back giving him more access to her breast.

Suddenly he pulled back and gave her a confused look.

“What?” Ruby asked annoyed that he stopped before she could really enjoy it.

“You called me Christina” He replied.

Fuck.

Christina, her pregnant fiancée, who she was cheating on.

“I mean I’m into it if you are” He said with a devilish look in his eyes.

Honestly, this would have been easier if he had been disgusted or offended. Damn modern men.

“Where do you live?” Ruby heard herself asking.

She really didn’t pay attention to his reply, only that it wasn’t far, and found herself leaving with him.

They didn’t talk as they walked or even as they got to his apartment.

Once the door closed behind her she found herself pushed up against it, his body pinning her there.

She pushed him away this time and asked where his bedroom was, he all but dragged her upstairs.

He kissed her again as they entered and began to unzip her dress but she once again pushed him away.

“No, you just watch” she said with an alluring look in her eyes as she undressed.

He was hard as a rock but nodded anyways and took a seat in a chair by the bed.

Ruby got on the bed and positioned herself against the headboard with her legs slightly spread, still in her underwear.

She ran her hands softly over her inner thighs and her breasts, with one hand she pinched one nipple at a time before bulling her breasts out of the bra, she heard a moan from Arron as she exposed herself to him.

She loved her breasts, it had always been her favorite thing about herself, apart from her voice, and while Leti was thin and Light skinned. She was also flat as a board.

It was also a body part that Christina loved, and really didn’t hide. Ruby and asked her once while the blonde was sucking on her nipple if she had mommy issues. She had laughed and said if she had anything it was daddy issues. God thinking about the tall blonde made her wet. She imagined it was William, Christina really, sitting in the chair. Instructed not to cum before Ruby let her, breathing heavily as the singer slipped her right hand into her wet panties and hidden from view, parted her lips to find her clit. She moaned as she graced it with her fingertips, she had always been more into getting her clit played with than getting penetrated, well except by William. She threw her head back and arched her back as she circled her clit before gently pinching it between two fingers.

She heard the masculine moan from across the room and imagined William watching as Christina fucked her.

Fuck. That was a whole new fantasy and fuck if it didn’t make her cum hard.

Arron had cum as well and began climbing into bed before Ruby stopped him.

“You are sleeping on the couch” she said.

“But…” he began

“But nothing, I am engaged and so far I’ve done nothing wrong, but let you kiss me” She said in a strict tone.

She loved Christina and would never actually fuck someone else, well not unless the blonde was there with her. So while she didn’t imagine that Christina would be thrilled about her exploits, she hadn’t fucked some random guy and she had genuinely thought about her as she got off. 

\---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

After they had sorted through all of the clothes, shoes and accessories Christina had picked out she saw the total and insisted on paying.

They argued about it for a bit before agreeing that Sterling would give her the friends and family discount and the suit for free.

Christina had begrudgingly agreed, and Sterling had called it the start of a beautiful friendship.

At this time it was close to 2 am.

They decided to call a cab as the bags were heavy and it was cold out.

“You asked about my coat” Christina said as she watched Sterling lock up.

“Yeah I love vintage clothes, my grandma had a lot of it and I just always loved it, it reminds me of her” Sterling explained.

“Well, assuming that the airport ever finds our luggage I have a lot of vintage clothes, you can have it if you’d like” Christina offered

“Wow really? Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’ve gotten it from my grandmother as well and it’s in pristine condition” Christina said, and really it was. Most of it was new and unused when she packed it in 1958.

As they got into the cab Sterling asked about Ruby.

“Her name is Ruby, Ruby Baptiste, she is a singer and God you should hear her voice, it’s like a dream. Her skin is the warmest deepest chocolate color, her eyes are so alive and soulful, and I truly believe that she’s my soulmate” Christina said with a dreamy look.

Sterling uhh’ed and ah’ed and excitedly leaned forward.

“How did you two lovebirds meet?” She asked.

Christina thought for a bit, trying not to reveal too much.

“At a bar, she was preforming, and I felt magic in the air… that and her pregnant little sister is dating and having a kid my cousin”

Sterling laughed.

“So your babies will be related on both sides of the family?”

Christina hadn’t really thought about that.

“Sweet home Alabama” Sterling began singing.

Christina didn’t get the exact reference, but she did know how common marriages between cousins were in Alabama in her time, she guessed something didn’t change.

She tried to explain that her and Atticus were distant cousins, but Sterling was laughing too much to listen.

As the car stopped and the girls got the bags from the trunk Christina asked Sterling to come up and get the money. Sterling who was now feeling the impact of finishing the wine for the two of them dramatically placed her hand on her chest.

“Miss. Braithwhite are you proposing something as immodest as me joining you, a known lesbian, unchaperoned in you hotel room”

“I know it will ruin your reputation Miss. Rose, but I so long for your company” Christina dramatically played along.

The cab driver cleared his throat, waiting to get paid. Sterling broke character and paid him before motioning for Christina to lead the way.

They talked about the expectation that was put upon them as they grew up pedigrees, whatever that meant in todays world. As they walked to the room.

As she opened the door she was glad that both her and Ruby had closed their suitcases and placed them at the foot of the bed.

“Oh good, the airport delivered out luggage” Christina faked excitement. 

She opened hers and got out a few pieces to show Sterling but when she turned, she found the taller girl asleep on the sofa.

\---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Ruby woke up to the sun in her eyes and the realization that this wasn’t her bed and Christina wasn’t with her. Yesterday hit her like a hammer, oh god she had gone home with a stranger and masturbated in front of him. She was mortified.

She quickly slipped on her clothes and tip toed out of the room. The house was quiet and the clock on the wall told her that it was only 8.30 in the morning.

She walked until she got to a street big enough to have taxies and got one. She gave the driver the address for the hotel and hoped for the best.

She was dreading the conversation they needed to have all the way to their room. The front desk had given her a spare key card. Inside she found a large shopping bag on their bed an various pieces thrown on Christina’s side of the bed.

She went to the bathroom and took a quick shower, before putting on one of the daytime dresses from the bag. She thought back to the sweet receptionist from yesterday who told them about the complimentary breakfast and went down both to find Christina and get something to eat. 

As she entered the restaurant her eyes found Christina’s long golden hair right away. But her blood froze as she saw and heard Christina laughing with the woman sitting across from her before placing her hand on the women’s. 


	10. Rubies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey friends :D So I read this post on Tumblr which really sh*t on mine and some other peoples fics and as always everyone is allowed to express their thoughts but this fandom isnt big enough for the tone used in the post. It was really bad and almost made me give up this fic for a while. So please, please, use a good and nice tone even when you dissagree because at the end of the day we are here because we love the fandom and we are all human behind the screen. 
> 
> anyway thank you so much to those of you who take the time to read and comment :D   
> and Happy New Years, i'll see you next year :P

Ruby approached the table with caution, the brunette stranger noticing her before Christina.

“Hey” Ruby said when she reached the pair.

“Oh hey, Ruby this is Sterling Rose, Sterling this is my fiancée Ruby Baptiste” Christina introduced them.

“Oh right, Ruby you truly are as beautiful as Christina described” Sterling said as she got up from her chair.

“And look at her in that dress, I told you she’d be beautiful” Christina agreed with a slight smile.

“Don’t get up on my behave” Ruby said as she watched the brunette, Sterling, pick up her calculating device from the table.

“I have to sweetie. My brother is meeting me for lunch, and I have to go home to change and shower beforehand”

“Thank you for keeping me company last night, and for the suit” Christina stood up as well to hug Sterling goodbye. Which Ruby found weird. Christina was touch starved with her but rarely touched anyone else.

As they hugged Ruby noticed that Sterling, despite wearing flat ankle boots, was taller than Christina. That was a bit unusual as well.

“By the way, will you ladies be in town for New Year’s Eve?” Sterling asked as she pulled away from Christina.

Christina looked at Ruby for an answer. But Ruby just shrugged.

“What were you thinking?” Christina finally asked.

“Well usually I spend New Years with my friends in the Hamptons but this year one of them is hosting the event of the season at the Waldorf Astoria for New Years, it’s rumored to humble even the Met gala” Sterling said with glee.

“That nice but what does that have to do with our plans for New Years?” Ruby asked.

“Right, well I had a plus one and an additional invite at my disposal and having recently dumped my shitty boyfriend, I just threw out the whole man. I now have two available tickets, so if you ladies want to you can come as my guests” Sterling offered in a ramble.

“First of all, drop men they are generally trash. Secondly we’d love to come to ‘the event of the season’” Christina replied kindly with a soft open expression on her face.

Sterling threw her head back in a loud laugh which caused some of the people around the to turn and stare at them.

“Men might be trash but I am unfortunately a racoon” Sterling laughed while digging around in her purse for the tickets.

This actually caused both Ruby and Christina to laugh as well.

Once Sterling found the ticket, she got a pen and wrote their names on the paper, crossing out her own and Daniel Tallen’s names on the invite and finished by writing her number on the back.

“there you go now you also have my number for when you get new phones, or you can just add me on Facebook like normal people” Sterling said as she put the pen back in her purse.

“Oh shit” she said as she glanced at her watch, she quickly hugged Ruby goodbye before disappearing out of the restaurant.

“You didn’t come back to me last nigh” Christina said as she sipped some of the orange juice Sterling har ordered for her, vitamin C and all that.

Ruby said down in the seat across from Christina, where Sterling had sat.

“You told me not to” was the simple reply.

Ruby was torn, should she tell Christina what she had done? Had she really done anything that wrong? She wasn’t feeling guilty per say, just… well she couldn’t really place the emotion.

“I was angry, and I didn’t mean it” Christina said softly. “I’m sorry I snapped at you”

That took Ruby by surprise, she had never actually had Christina apologize for anything. The blonde would often explain herself and her actions, but never actually apologize. She didn’t want to, and she tried to fight it. But Ruby felt the tension leave her body as she looked at her stunning fiancée, sitting there in a suit that only she could pull off. 

“I’m sorry I left you at the hospital, I’m sorry that I didn’t come back last night, I’m sorry that I-“ Ruby cut herself off before the last bit. It wasn’t something you told your pregnant fiancée in a busy hotel restaurant.

“It’s okay. I overreacted and never let you explain why you left.” Christina reached across the table to hold her hand and Ruby burned with shame at how understanding Christina was being.

“I think I left because the reality of it all finally hit me. We are having a baby and I was so scared that it might kill you” Ruby confessed with sincerity.

Christina nodded, gently urging her to continue.

“I love you” Ruby said.

Christina smiled, her blue eyes unblinking as usual, but filled with emotion.

“I love you” She said. She refused to say that she loved Ruby ‘too’ because that implied that it was only said after the first admission and was conditional, which it was not. The space Ruby had in her heart and soul had been unexpected, one of only two variables, but it was uninterrupted and unconditional.

This time Christina initiated and leaned across the table to softly kiss her fiancée.

“Come on” Ruby said as she broke the kiss and got up from her seat.

“Where are we going?” Christina asked with her childlike curiosity.

“We are going to the Central Park and ring shopping” She said holding her hand out for the blonde to take.

Christina took it.

They ended up taking a cab to the park because it was a longer walk from Manhattan than they had expected. 

But it was worth it, the leaves had changed color but hadn’t fallen just yet and walking there, hand in hand, in a less popular part of the park felt like heaven. And at that realization Ruby felt like a sinner.

“So, Sterling?” She asked, deflecting.

“Yeah after I used magic to leave at the hospital I was drained and a bit dazed, I ended up walking the wrong way and met Sterling at her shop as she was closing up” Christina explained.

“And she spent the night at the hotel?”

Christina smiled deviously

“Are you jealous? Because you shouldn’t be” Christina said before continuing” apparently drinking alcohol is not allowed anymore while expecting so she finished the bottle of wine by herself and passed out on the sofa after getting me safely back”

That relaxed Ruby a bit, she didn’t think Christina was the cheating type, not if it didn’t further her agenda. But then again Ruby hadn’t thought that she was either.

“How did it go at the hospital?” Ruby realized that she hadn’t waited around for the answer.

Christina didn’t reply but walked over at sat on an empty bench near them.

Ruby’s breath catches in the chest as she sits down next to the blonde who takes her hands

“So the doctors said they couldn’t tell yet, but we know that we are having a girl” Christina began.

Ruby could feel her heart beating faster.

“She is perfectly fine”

Ruby wanted to shake Christina and scream that she didn’t really care, well she did, but she cared more about Christina than the baby.

“Ruby. Ruby” She heard Christina’s voice, but it sounded far away.

Finally she felt her senses come back to her. Like someone turned the volume back on. 

“you zoned out there for a while” a worried looking Christina was kneeling in front of her on the bench.

“Baby, what about you? Are you okay?” Ruby asked still a little short of breath.

“I’m good”

“For someone who promised never to lie to me you sure omit a lot” Ruby said flatly.

“I am, I am good the Doctor told me to take it easy, not bedrest but I needed to avoid stress and should cut back on work” Christina admitted.

“That not fine Christina, that’s not you being fine” Ruby panicked. The blonde may have the mark, but Ruby had a bad feeling about this, they should’ve never left 55.

“Calm down Darling, I feel good I promise” Christina said.

Ruby grabbed her chin and held eye contact.

“Do you truly promise? I cant lose you, so are you really okay?”

Christina sighed and got off of her knees to sit next to Ruby again.

“I am exhausted, my magic is off somehow, and I won’t be as efficient at my work”

“We are having a baby” Ruby said, terrified and amazed

“you know I have half in mind to not have children, just to end Samuels bloodline” Christina confessed with a small sneaky smile. 

“Well you are now forever mixing it, I think he’d be a bit miffed by that” Ruby supplied

“Yeah, he used to tell me that I should never mix the blood of a racehorse with the blood of a work horse”

“He must have hated Atticus then” Ruby was a bit amused

“Oh he really did, went on and on about how we had a duty to our race. A duty that Titus failed as he fucked both his slave and his blood”

“Really?”

“We’ve always only had white workers at the manor, incase he felt like fucking the help he wouldn’t ruin our ‘pure’ blood”

“Oh god, he’s the type I’d think was a nazi sympathizer” Ruby was both amused and angry.

“What makes you think that?” Christina asked

“The way he’s generally described” Ruby said carefully, hoping she hadn’t overstepped.

“No, what makes think that he wasn’t a full blown nazi” Christina replied.

“for real?” honestly Ruby wasn’t surprised by that.

Christina shrugged.

“Like with the Clan he thought them rather common in general and thought that Hitler looked a bit Jewish, but he agreed with the overall ideology and rather liked Goebbels and Himmler” Christina said with some thought.

“I had no expectations and I’m still disappointed” Ruby said.

“Believe me I know, he even bought an estate in Berlin so that when the war was won, he would help the Reich with their occult operations and I’d marry some high standing member of the party and birth a pure aryan boy for him to teach magic” Christina said, really happy on a purely personal level that the allied had won.

Ruby kissed Christina, tasting the orange juice she had earlier on her tongue. She could disappear in the soft movements of Christina’s lips moving against her, sucking on her lower lip.

They had to pull apart before they committed a crime in a public park.

“We are a having a daughter, a brown girl who will be better and stronger than he ever was” Ruby said firmly, for once genuinely happy about them having a baby.

They found a vendor in the park and ate a hotdog which they both agreed the 50’s did better. Before wandering around looking for a jewelry store. After walking around for more than an hour Ruby spotted a small store which almost drowned against the flashy exteriors and signs of the neighboring stores. But this one looked old and interesting somehow.

An elderly black woman was behind the counter when they entered.

“Can I help you ladies with anything?” she asked

“we are looking for a ring for my fiancée here” Ruby said and pointed at Christina.

“Beautiful choice” The woman said referring to Christina, which uncharacteristic caused the tall blonde to blush.

The looked for a bit before a lone ring caught Christina’s eye, it wasn’t in the display but in box next to the register.

“Is that one for sale?” she asked.

Ruby looked up and the woman followed Christina’s line of sight and landed on the ring. Laughed but walked over and got it for them.

Ruby marveled at it.

The woman explained that it was her rarest piece. The ring was a pigeon blood natural ruby 3.15 carats from Mazambique and that the ruby alone was 6000 dollars. It was set in a thick yellow gold and set in an Open Cathedral cut. The ring would cost just shy of 8000 dollars.

Ruby didn’t even flinch as she put down the first half in deposit to have it resized for Christina’s slender fingers.

"You know back in my days we used to say that rubies meant deep eternal love and passion, its hardend by fire with the power to set the heart aflame and said to settle fights between lovers" The woman said. 

"Rubies are beautiful" Christina supplied looking at her Lover

It was while Ruby was paying that Christina realized that they’d spent all that money on her, but they hadn’t found anything for Ruby.

“We should get you a ring as well” Christina said.

They woman tried to hide her smile, they had already spent a lot of money in her shop and now they we looking for another engagement ring.

Maybe her son wouldn’t have to worry about paying for her granddaughter’s medicine this month.

Ruby shook her head.

“you haven’t proposed to me”

“Well I don’t have a ring to propose with, chose one and I’ll propose” She suggested.

“No”

“Marry me?”

“No”

“What do you mean ‘no’ we’re already engaged” Christina said flabbergasted.

“Oh I can absolutely say no” Ruby responded amused.

“Marry me” Christina tries again.

“No, you agreed to marry me, I didn’t agree to marry you” Ruby said in a teasing voice

“You do realize that the priest will ask you if you take me to be your lawfully wedded wife, right?” Christina asked perplexed. 

“Yes, and I will say ‘i do’. I’ll bind you to me with a golden band. But I don’t want or need an engagement ring. I just really want you to have one” Ruby tried to explain.

Oh. Christina realized.

“You just want to stake your claim. Might as well put a collar on me” Christina laughed

The woman had left the desk, presumably for the back room while they argued.

Ruby moved closer to Christina, put her arms around her waist and pulled her flush against her.

“well if you’d rather a collar…” Ruby leaned up and whispered next to the blonds ear.

“No, I mean maybe, yes. I’d really also like a ring please” The blonde was flushed an unusual but adorable red.

Ruby laughed highly amused and impressed with her effect on the stoic blonde.

“I know baby, that’s why we’re getting you a ring as well” ¨

“you are a little jealous you know? Wanting everyone to know that I’m spoken for” 

“Jealousy implies that I want something I don’t have, I’m not jealous Baby I’m possessive over what’s mine” Ruby replied right before the Woman returned with their service bill and information for when to pick up the ring.

Christina felt like her actual heart was going to burst as her and Ruby walked out of the shop.

Wait as well…she’d get a ring as well… what did Ruby have in mind? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> realized my mistake, they are from 1955 not 1958...my bad :P 
> 
> This is Christina's engagement ring: https://www.withclarity.com/gemstone-rings/shop-gemstone-rings/metal/18kt-yellow-gold/carat/2.00/open-cathedral-ruby-ring-cushion-ruby


End file.
